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The Executive Order |
To view a chart of the number of executive orders issued by each president, click here
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An executive order is a directive that can be issued by the President in order to make sure that the laws are being executed and properly followed. Article II, Section I of the constitution grants the president the right to execute such orders by granting him "Executive Power." Executive orders do not require the approval of Congress, yet they're just as powerful as a law passed by Congress. This is where the danger enlies, and where the the rights of citizens are often compromised.
It is important to understand that executive orders have been used for good in the past, and should not be portrayed as an always negative aspect of the constitution. For example, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation via an executive order. Schools were desegregated by an executive order issued by President Eisenhower. The purpose of this website is to examine instances in which presidents have used the executive order to over step their bounds as leaders and take away the fundamental rights afforded to United States citizens by the Bill of Rights. This is the distinction that needs to be made.
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The true Presidental attitude and justification behind the executive order has been expressed no better than by President William Howard Taft, author of "Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers." Taft said, "The true view of the Executive function is, as I conceive it, that the President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power or justly implied and included within such express grant as proper and necessary to exercise."
