Executive Orders in AP US Government

Where an executive order gets its authority

A president can't sign an executive order on just any subject and expect it to hold. Every order has to point to a source of authority, which is why executive orders show up in Topic 2.4 (Roles and Power of the President), part of Unit 2. That topic asks how a president puts a policy agenda into effect, and executive orders are the course's main example of a tool for managing the federal government directly.

The course names two sources of authority. The first is the executive power vested in the president by Article II, along with the duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The second is authority Congress delegates when it passes a law and leaves the details of carrying it out to the executive branch.

That second source matters for multiple-choice answers. An order can lean on a statute Congress already passed, so "the president is making law without Congress" is usually the wrong answer choice. The president is directing how the bureaucracy carries out law.

When Congress stalls and the president signs an order

Topic 2.5 (Checks on the Presidency) explains why presidents reach for this tool. When the president's priorities clash with the congressional agenda (the policies Congress is actually weighing at the moment), the president can use executive orders and directives to the bureaucracy to move their own agenda items.

This is classic Concept Application territory. A typical scenario describes a president whose party is in the minority in Congress, so their bills stall. You'd explain that the president can turn to executive orders and to public appeals through the bully pulpit (Topic 2.7). A signing statement only comes into play if Congress does pass a bill and the president signs it. A strong answer names the power, explains why it doesn't need a vote in Congress, and names a limit on it.

Many wrong answers come from mixing up three similar tools:

• Executive order: a presidential directive used to manage the executive branch or implement law, including in domestic or foreign affairs.
• Executive agreement: an agreement with a foreign government that does not require the Senate's advice and consent, unlike a treaty (a foreign policy power).
• Signing statement: the president's stated interpretation of a bill they just signed into law.

Agencies carry it out: Executive Order 11246

Once signed, an order goes to the bureaucracy. Topic 2.14 (Holding the Bureaucracy Accountable) asks how presidents make sure agencies follow the administration's goals, and the course points to the president's influence, authority, and ideology shaping how agencies work.

The course's illustrative example is Executive Order 11246, signed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It required companies holding federal contracts to avoid discrimination and take affirmative action in hiring. Congress didn't pass a new law for this. Johnson used his control over federal contracting to set a rule for anyone doing business with the government.

The order also shows compliance monitoring, the follow-up work that checks whether money is spent properly and rules are obeyed. The course notes that monitoring can create its own implementation problems, since agencies have to track and enforce what the order demands.

The three checks that can undo an executive order

The weakness of an executive order is that it rests on presidential authority, so other actors can push back. Courts can strike an order down through judicial review if it goes beyond the president's power. In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), the Supreme Court blocked Truman's order seizing steel mills during the Korean War because neither the Constitution nor Congress gave him that power.

Congress can pass a law overriding an order, though the president can veto it, so an override needs a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Congress can also use oversight and the power of the purse (Topic 2.14) to hold hearings or refuse to fund what the order requires. Finally, the next president can revoke an order with a new one, which makes orders less durable than statutes.

Orders can also enforce court rulings. In 1957 Eisenhower issued an executive order authorizing federal action in Little Rock to enforce federal court orders requiring school desegregation under Brown v. Board of Education. That ties back to Topic 2.11, where the president's role in implementing (or delaying) Supreme Court rulings works as a check on the judiciary.

Using executive orders in a Federalist No. 70 argument

Topic 2.6 (Expansion of Presidential Power) asks how presidents have defended broad readings of their powers, and executive orders are strong evidence for that debate. Hamilton's Federalist No. 70 argues that an energetic single executive is needed to carry out the laws steadily and protect the nation, which is the logic presidents use when they act alone.

On the Argument Essay, a prompt about whether presidential power has grown too large lets you cite Federalist No. 70 and use executive orders as a modern example. Your rebuttal can turn to Federalist No. 51 and the checks above (courts, Congress, the next president), or to the Twenty-Second Amendment as a sign of unease about presidential power growing. Whichever side you take, explain how executive orders let presidents act faster than Congress and why they remain open to reversal.