What constitutes a legal/illegal Executive Order?

Wikipedia listed information on Presidential Executive Orders, noting that only two in history have ever been overturned by Congress. However, EO’s are not really spelled out in the Constitution, and the article fails to mention what the parameters are for a legal EO. Could the President write an Executive Order requiring all citizens walk around naked on Saturdays? Could an Executive Order dissolve Congress? Where is his power limited?

Adam

Big gray area there. The quick n’ dirty answer: if Congress has explicitly or implicitly authorized the EO, it’s okay unless otherwise unconstitutional, and if Congress has specifically made the actions taken in the EO verboten, it’s a no-no unless it’s a inherent power of the Presidency under the Constitution. If Congress is silent, it’s hard to say.

The most historically important case on the matter is probably Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), “the Steel Seizure case.” This passage from Frankfurter’s concurrence is often quoted to illustrate Presidential power to act: