The president of the United States is given the power to pass executive orders through an implication of the Constitution’s Second Amendment. The amendment states that, “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States.” The most famous executive order to date is Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863.

Although executive orders have been legal since the Constitution was written, their use was greatly expanded after World War I and World War II with Franklin D. Roosevelt passing 3,522. While some argue that executive orders serve as an impediment to the United States’ system of checks and balances, Congress is awarded the ability of overturning any executive order by passing a law that negates it. It is also possible for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn any order considered unconstitutional.

Whenever a President signs an executive order, his opponents tend to act as though his sudden greed and lust for power is beginning to overrule the say of the American people. This trend has been no different for our current president, despite the fact that he has only passed 235 executive orders since taking office –  56 less than his predecessor, President George W. Bush.

One of the latest executive orders passed is meant to “expand the scope of the national emergency” regarding the current crisis in Libya. The point of this executive order, which was signed on April 19, is to, at least temporarily, prohibit “entry into the United States of persons contributing to the situation in Libya.” This makes it so anyone who has been sanctioned will be denied entry into the United Sates and any assets they hold in the United States will be frozen.

The newest target of this executive order is Khalifa al-Ghwell. Ghwell helped form the post-revolutionary General National Congress and is now running the fairly new government from Tripoli. By signing this executive order into action, the president is actually trying to force Libyan politicians like Ghwell into accepting certain proposals put forth by the United Nations.

While many executive orders go virtually unnoticed by the general public, they can also cause quite a stir, especially when they tackle controversial issues. After Obama issued an executive order earlier this year that would protect many undocumented immigrants from deportation, it was brought to the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality. This decision, like many others caused by a presidential executive order, had protestors waiving signs outside the Supreme Court.

Alanis Alvarez is the secretary of the Democrats of Hofstra University.

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