Every day an Executive Order! What does it mean?

Author: Elly Kugler is an attorney who served as Senior Counsel in the General Counsel’s office at the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development from January 20, 2021 to March 2024. During their time in federal service, they reviewed draft Executive Orders and organized HUD’s suggested edits and comments on those drafts to the White House. 

The Trump White House has been putting out Executive Orders at a fast pace, which is often the case when a new president comes into office. Many people are scared that these Executive Orders, if fully executed, would do things like defund their children's school districts, strip away their status as citizens, or cause them to lose their jobs. This post explains the basics of what executive orders are, and what they can—and cannot—do. 

It’s important to know that there are a lot of court cases happening right now that are pushing back on these Executive Orders and other actions by the Trump administration. This post explains what the status quo has been, but it doesn’t get into the details of those cases nor predict or weigh in the outcomes of any current litigation. 

What is an Executive Order?

An Executive Order (EO) is sent out by the White House on behalf of the U.S. president. An EO expresses the president’s wishes and priorities. You can think of them like a memo from the president. Traditionally, EOs are mostly directed to the different federal administrative agencies and departments that make up the federal government. This makes EOs different from laws passed by Congress (or by states).

An EO can be very broad—for example, expressing a general sense of approval or disapproval for something. Other EOs are in the middle. These EOs are often sent to all federal agencies and departments, letting them know that the president wants the agencies to try to make their work look different in specific ways and explaining why that’s important to this administration. 

Paraphrased example: I, President Biden, think that unions are good for the nation and that it’s important to support workers when they organize for better rights. I want federal agencies to find ways to be supportive or at least get out of the way when unions are organizing and I want federal agencies to find lawful ways to use their power to support workers when they ask for more rights. Federal agencies, you should also work together set up a task force that works together to make sure agencies all take some kind of meaningful action and learn from each other (Executive Order 14025).

Some EOs are really narrow. They’re sometimes directed at a specific federal agency, or sometimes they order a very specific action.

Paraphrased example: I, President Trump, am pardoning one specific person named Devon Archer for all federal crimes, and I want the Department of Justice to make sure Devon doesn’t serve any federa prison time or have to pay money or get accused of anything by the Department of Justice. (Executive Grant of Clemency for Devon Archer, March 26, 2025). 

Some of the most unusual EOs from the Trump administration take micro-targeted actions like targeting a specific law firm or revoke a previous order trying to target a specific law firm. 

Paraphrased example: I, President Trump, believe the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP has done things that I dislike and think are illegal. That’s why I’m having certain federal agencies suspend the security clearances that Perkins Coie employees have, and taking action to prevent federal funds and other federal things from being given directly or indirectly to Perkins Coie (Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP, March 6, 2025)

Can Executive Orders force what the president wants to happen, no matter what?

No. The U.S. president has power to do certain things, but the U.S. became an independent nation in large part because we didn't want to be ruled by one person with unlimited powers. There are other sources of authority that are more powerful than the president’s word. And because the federal government has limited power—also by design—there are also cases when an EO targets something outside the power of the federal government so it can only work if we let it. 

Here are some things Executive Orders cannot do

1. An Executive Order can’t override other sources of authority with more power:

Source of authority: The Constitution

The President has some explicit powers laid out in Article II of the Constitution, such as serving as commander in chief of the military, and the power to grant pardons for federal crimes. But there are lots of powers that Article II does not give the president. And Article V of the Constitution explicitly lays out a process for amending the Constitution that only allows Congress or state legislatures to amend the Constitution—not the president. This is one of the reasons why multiple lawsuits have been filed against EO 14160, which tries to take away birthright citizenship. The people in these lawsuits say it violates the 14th amendment, and the executive branch isn’t allowed to violate the Constitution and doesn’t have the power to modify it. |

Source of authority: Laws passed by congress

The president is not allowed to act in contradiction to laws that forbid their actions, or take an action that runs against laws passed by Congress (Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579). Especially when it comes to domestic matters, Congress may not delegate too much of its legislative powers to the executive branch (Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States). |

Source of authority: Decisions made by the courts

“...there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.” (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78.)

2. An Executive Order can’t force changes in areas not controlled by the federal government—unless we let it:

Just like the president has some (but not unlimited) power, the federal government as a whole has some but not unlimited power. An EO is a wish—a desire, expressed by a person who has immense but not unlimited power. What’s more, the wish requires action to be fulfilled. In some cases, the president wishes for something to happen that is directly under the control of the federal government (like making a treaty with another country). But in other cases, the president wants something that’s not directly under the control of the federal government. 

If the president wants something to happen that is not directly under the control of the federal government, they can try to change things by making a general announcement in an EO or other presidential communication. And this President may (and has been) instructing agencies to take steps to follow those priorities. 

But in most cases, the federal government then has to rely on the actions of recipients of federal funds, schools, cities, states, and other institutions to comply.

Think of it like a food delivery app. If you have money, a cell connection, and participating restaurants, you can order food. But you can't push buttons and suddenly force closed restaurants to open or make a diner with good fries exist if there just isn't one, or force a person who is done with deliveries that day to suddenly change their minds because you really, really want a funfetti cupcake.

Although EOs can do things like instruct agencies to take action in support of the president’s priorities, the EOs and the agencies usually don’t have the authority to directly force schools, cities or states to give into mandates that are illegal. Everyone has to make their own assessment of what level of risk is right for them—but we should remember that in many cases, there’s not actually a direct way for the thing named in the EO to happen except through our obedience. 

Here are things an Executive Order can do only if we let it:

• Create a culture of fear
• Strip people of their innate human value
• Discourage protective institutions like schools, places of worship and non-profits from taking reasonable risks in defiance of illegal and immoral mandates

Additional resources

Check out this guide to Executive Orders that was written by the Congressional Research Service, a component of the Library of Congress that provides non-partisan, factually based information, principally for members of Congress.