Q. When Is a Presidential Order Not a Presidential Order? A. When it has no force in law?
If you take a look at the official Presidential Actions page at Whitehouse.gov to look up the 23 [paging Jim Carrey] famed “presidential orders” of Jan. 16 a funny thing happens. 20 of them aren’t there.*
It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya!
It turns out that Presidential Actions are sorted into three categories: Presidential Memoranda, Presidential Proclamations, and Executive Orders. Obama hasn’t issued an Executive Order since Dec. 21. He did issue a Presidential Proclamation on Jan. 16, a salute to Religious Freedom Day.
So what are the rest of those tyrannical, fascist power grabs? Apparently, they are of even less force than boilerplate pieties.
New York magazine discovered this discrepency.
From what they go on to say, even some courts use presidential memoranda and executive orders interchangeably.
But the 20 other Presidential Actions are mere pro forma good-saying. They have no more legal meaning - perhaps less - than the President telling his cabinet to go out do their jobs.
For the purposes of internet garble-blarge, calling them all presidential orders makes little difference. Until you get to the fascist tyranny bit. I admit I didn’t know the differences in what were issued until I read this article. But it’s now out there. How often do you think even major news outlets will start issuing fact checks and educating the public on what Presidents can and can’t do - and what this president in fact did and didn’t do?
*In a shocking mistake that will find some Representatives calling for impeachment, one memorandum is listed twice. This continued incompetence at the highest levels cannot be tolerated indefinitely!