ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – In just his first three days in office, President Donald Trump has signed dozens of executive orders, with more expected to come.
But what is an executive order and how do they work? Two local political experts say the orders themselves are often straightforward, but their paths to becoming reality might not be.
“The executive order is a presidential prerogative,” Virginia Tech’s Director of Graduate Studies Cayce Myers said. “So, like I said, the executive order’s implementation may be subject to legal challenges.”
The act of signing an executive order is a simple process; however, upholding it looks a little different. While executive orders don’t need approval from the US Congress, they can be blocked by Congress and the courts.
“Congress can go back and change the laws, which basically takes that power away, because a law can supersede what an executive order can do,” Chair of Political Science at Radford University Chapman Rackaway said.
But Rackaway says most of Congress is on President Trump’s side, so the likelihood of that is slim. Aside from Congress, an order could go before the Supreme Court on claims it goes against the Constitution.
“There is always that, kind of, last resort against the president, is that an executive order can, if the Supreme Court sees it as appropriate, declare an executive order unconstitutional,” Rackaway said.
“You take something like birthright citizenship,” Myers said, “that is an order that is likely to be challenged in courts, or maybe already be challenged in courts, and it may even go up to the Supreme Court.”
The whole idea of the executive orders, Rackaway says, is to ultimately reverse what the previous administration did as quickly as possible.
“Every time the President changes and especially when the party changes,” Rackaway said, “it means that all the executive orders from the previous president kind of get undone.”
That’s why Myers says they act as a temporary measure.
“They don’t have the staying power like a law that is passed by Congress and then signed into law,” Myers said.
Myers says he expects to see a lot of cases brought to the courts over the next four years regarding these executive orders.
Trump has proposed nearly 100 so far. For context, Joe Biden signed 160 in his four years and Trump signed 220 during his first term. Ronald Reagan signed nearly 400.
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