Executive Orders are not mentioned at all in the Constitution. They're not Constitutional, but the contents of them must be supported by the Constitution in order to be upheld by the courts. Executive orders in one form or the other have been issued since the Washington administration.
Since they are not law, they can generally be rescinded by a future POTUS. Biden has already said that on Day One he intends to rescind some of Trump's EOs, such as the Muslim ban, the withdrawal from the Paris Accord, and WHO membership (the latter not scheduled to take effect untll July 2021). That's the nature of EOs; if you want the idea to survive, you need legislation. Trump seemed to favor the EO instead of pushing for legislation, but as a political novice who never bothered to actually read the Constitution, he probably didn't know any better. He thought Article II gave him the power to do anything he wanted to do. |
