Re:President to issue executive orders.

[dahermit]

In regard to President Obama's intention to by-pass the Legislative branch of the government and issue executive orders relative to gun control, I have a couple of questions for the Constitutional Lawyers and/or constitutional Scholars on this forum.

As I remember from Government class, if a law is passed and it is of sufficient national interest, an entity can request that the Supreme Court consider it and issue a ruling despite the fact that it did not go through the court system. The Supreme Court may choose to either consider the law or ignore the request.

Is this the same with a presidential executive order? Could the NRA request that the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of and the possibility of the apparent Conditional conflict of the separation of powers (President creating law instead of executing it.)?

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The Supreme Court doesn't do preemptive review of whether a law or executive order is constitutional. That is why the White House has their own lawyers.

And executive orders do not create law. They are instructions on how to carry out existing powers that have been delegated to the Executive by Congress or that are appointed to the Executive by the Constitution.

In the ideal, an executive order that was broader than what Congress intended would have Congress remove that authority from the President and that would be that. However, since the President's party controls the Senate, the President cannot create new law; but he can interpret existing law very broadly and Congress may have a difficult time overturning the order.

[carguychris]

And executive orders do not create law. They are instructions on how to carry out existing powers that have been delegated to the Executive by Congress or that are appointed to the Executive by the Constitution.

Exactly. It's also helpful to point out that executive orders can and have been thrown out by the SCOTUS for unconstitutionally going beyond the scope of the law.

One of the most frequently cited examples is Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, a 1952 SCOTUS decision that voided Truman's executive order placing all American steel mills under federal control to avert a strike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10340

[maestro pistolero]

Dupe.
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=456275

[Mike Irwin]

Yep, essentially a duplicate.

I've reviewed the other one, and I'm afraid that merging the two threads will cause an interesting break in continuity of discussion, so for right now I'm going to close this one as the other one has been going on longer and is more active.