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Are Executive Orders & Regulations Legal?

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I specifically mean ones that effect citizens who do not work for the Federal government. Because in essence the President and the bureaucracy of the various agencies and departments are making law in violation of the Constitution which states only Congress can make law. Calling it by a different name doesn't mean it's still a law. That would mean a great deal of what the Executive branch does is in fact illegal under our Constitution. I don't think the Constitution mentions Executive Orders nor giving the Executive Branch regulation making powers.
 


HuAi

Member
Yes they are legal, federal agencies such as the IRS, FDA, EPA, OSHA, etc can issue administrative regulations because an act of congress authorized them to do so.

A concrete example: Congress wants to protect the employee's occupational safety. There is a lot of minutia that has to be decided, judged, and enforced. Congress has neither the time, budget nor expertise to decide all the specific rules. Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and health Act which created broad goals for occupational safety and empowered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to pass regulations within the scope of those broad goals. OSHA is also responsible for policing these regulations, and holding administrative hearings on violations. OSHA does not have any authority to regulate something outside the scope of the enpowering act, let's say regulating an environmental hazard unrelated to occupational safety. If they tried to pass such a regulation, it would be unconstitutional.

Similarly the President can issue orders to allow enforcement of the duties granted to the executive branch by the constitution.
 
Congress passes the laws in reality by granting the directors of the agencies the authority to make regulations to effect the congress' wishes.
 

Dillon

Senior Member
Congress passes the laws in reality by granting the directors of the agencies the authority to make regulations to effect the congress' wishes.
only the people grant powers not congress.

delagated powers cant be delagated.

with all due respect, you dont understand the separation of powers and the Constitution for the United States?


The enumerated powers are a list of items found in Article I, section 8 of the US Constitution that set forth the authoritative capacity of the United States Congress. In summary, Congress may exercise the powers to which it is granted by the Constitution, and subject to explicit restrictions in the Bill of Rights and other protections found in the Constitutional text.

The 10th Amendment states that all powers not vested in the federal government nor prohibited of the states are reserved to the states and to the people,

which means that the only prerogatives (powers) of the Congress (as well as the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch) are limited to those explicitly stated in the Constitution. - Sorry



have a nice day :cool:
 
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Stephen1

Member
HuAi & Billy_Thomson addressed federal regulations well. I will touch on Executive Orders (which are not regulations).

Executive Orders are directives from the head of the Executive Branch (the President) to his/her subordinates in the agencies & departments that report to him/her. They are internal guidance and, as such, do not directly apply to non-federal people. They may indirectly impact non-federal people because they lay out how the Executive Branch operates.

Think of Executive Orders as being similar to directives issued by the head of a company. The head of a company does not have any authority to require your customers to do or not do certain things, but the directive may require the employees to behave in certain ways that can impact the customer. For example, if the sales dept. is required to use only certain forms with a certain color ink then the customer, if he wants to actually get the order processed, must use that form and ink. If a restaurant owner directs the staff to seat men only if they are wearing a dress jacket and tie, that does not require customers to wear such attire, but it does prohibit the staff from seating men who don't meet the requirement. It does indirectly impact the customer, but the head of the company is not issuing directives/orders to people outside his chain of command.
 

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