History of Presidential Executive Orders

A Presidential Executive Order is a powerfulthe civil service, classification of top secret
regulation of the president, and was first used ongovernment documents, and introduce security
June 8, 1789 by President George Washington.programs. A Presidential Executive Order since
The first Presidential Order instructed the headsthe time of inception is influenced by the
of various departments to produce clarificationspresident's constitutional power and is legally valid;
on important matters pertaining to theirCongress then changes it into a law. However, a
departments.new legislation has the power to nullify an
There were around 2,400 Presidential OrdersExecutive Order issued by the president, in case
issued between 1789 and 1907, but it was only inthe Supreme Court or any of the lower federal
1907 that the Department of State began filingcourts label it as unconstitutional.
them in chronological order. Between 1908 andThe power of Presidential Executive Orders
1991, 13,000 such Executive Orders have beencomes to the forefront especially when crucial
filed, with the practice being that each one getsdecisions need to made during times of war.
filed as soon as the president has finished issuingDuring his tenure, President Franklin Roosevelt
it. Since they have been implemented, it hasmade full use of this authority, since he used his
served such important purposes like, deciding onpresidential privilege and issued the orders on
land to be allotted for environmental protection orseveral occasions during the World War II.
Indian reservations, Federal holidays, standardizing