The American Presidency: Executive Orders From George Washington to Joe Biden

Most Americans don’t realize that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t include a provision that explicitly allows the use of executive orders. Yet, Presidential executive orders have changed the course of our nation’s history in epic ways since George Washington issued the first one in 1789. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Theodore Roosevelt’s Grand Canyon preservation, Harry Truman’s Desegregation of the U.S. military, John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps creation, and Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon all were the result of an executive order. Ever since the Supreme Court overturned five of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive orders in 1935 a fierce debate has ensued over precisely the degree of power U.S. Presidents are afforded under our constitution.