USA Today has a great article on Presidential Memoranda

[davegolf]

"WASHINGTON - President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history - using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders."

No one ever claimed this President was not brilliant in his using the stroke of a pen.

"Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he's used his executive power less than other presidents. "The truth is, even with all the actions I've taken this year, I'm issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years," Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. "So it's not clear how it is that Republicans didn't seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did."

Fact Memorandums have same legal force as executive orders.

He's already signed 33% more presidential memoranda in less than six years than Bush did in eight. He's also issued 45% more than the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who assertively used memoranda to signal what kinds of regulations he wanted federal agencies to adopt.

Is this good for our Country or bad? Good thing they are reversible.

Presidential Memoranums

 

[davegolf]

This was the point I was trying to make a couple of weeks back. Obama did not issue an Executive Order on Amnesty. All of America was misled. He did however issue an Executive Memorandum which had the same force and affect and personally I am not clear if there are the same Constitution issues.

 

[Noodle]

I read that article last night and it was very interesting


As for Obama misleading America with respect to his amnesty measures, I'm not sure I would characterize it as misleading. When you cut to the chase, I don't think a presidential memorandum is any different than an executive order. The only difference is the name, and neither have the force of law (at least not in the sense that they directly grant rights or directly impose obligations on citizens).

As for constitutional issues, they are the same with respect to EOs and PMs. Neither can be used to create new law, or to exercise powers not granted to the executive branch by either the Constitution or by Congress.

 

[davegolf]

Re: I read that article last night and it was very interesting


Thank you and I agree except I think in the amnesty by issuing the Memorandum it was left to the agencies to enforce and not a grant by the President to avoid a Constitution battle. He left the responsibility with the agencies thus also the liability. A fine line but never the less it was a clever decision.

 

[NPT]

Well, unlike others

I'll use the same argument that I used when arguing about EOs. There's a lot more to it than just numbers so you can't just look at the number and determine much. JMO

 

[davegolf]

I find it very refreshing that intelligent people can have an intelligent discussion without all the name calling and derogatory statements.

 

[Aloha Hoosier]

My position too, but this destroys the simple-minded defense that. . .

he has "issued fewer EOs than . . ."

 

[davegolf]

Re: My position too, but this destroys the simple-minded defense that. . .


Thanks God USA News is not a conservative mouth piece the article would be debunked.