Presidential Executive Orders vs Laws vs.  Regulations

“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Once approved by both the House and Senate and signed by the President (or a Presidential veto is overridden), Congressional bills become federal law.

However, in the Constitution’s Article 2, Sections 2 and 3, it lists the Presidential responsibilities and powers, and in Article 2, Section 3 it states that he: (yes it says ‘he’)

“… shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed…”

It is assumed that the Executive Order is a means by which the President directs how administration officials and agencies are to carry out the duties of the Executive Branch, including faithfully executing the laws.

For Federal Laws, Federal agencies usually create Regulations because a

Congress left some flexibility in a law for federal agencies to work out how best to implement that law. The agencies then create Federal Regulations to specify the details and requirements necessary to provide guidance to enforce the law.

Regulations must be created according to the Federal Law: Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. Subchapter II).

Once an Executive Order is issued, it’s the job of federal agencies to effectuate the order by issuing regulations, revising policies, altering enforcement priorities, and even changing content and language in government publications and websites.

The Constitution did not give Congress or the Judicial Branch any law-enforcement powers.

Practically all the departments that you think of when you think of the US government, other than the Congress and the Courts, can be used by the President to enforce both Federal Laws and Executive Orders.

Or more likely, it requires a person or state to file a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the law is unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. They must demonstrate that the law infringes on them personally, and then taking it all the way to the Supreme Court for a ruling.

Such a suit would argue that the order is unconstitutional and/or unlawful and seek to stop the government from enforcing it. It would probably go all the way to the Supreme Court for a ruling.

How to adjudicate regulations is defined in the: Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. Subchapter II).