The Law: Presidential Memoranda and Executive Orders: Of Patchwork Quilts, Trump Cards, and Shell Games.: An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly

This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 8239 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: When President Clinton took office, he moved rapidly on a batch of controversial policy initiatives using executive orders and also presidential memoranda, a device known and understood by few and virtually ignored in the literature. This article explores the use of presidential memoranda and executive orders as policy tools, focusing on the case of the Clinton administration environmental justice initiative. While the ends may be laudable, the means can be problematic. The analysis concludes that presidential memoranda are devices that have come to be increasingly important, but they can present significant political and legal problems, particularly if they confuse legal authority for presidential action and appear to hide the true nature and purpose of administration policy, in which memoranda are used in place of executive orders or even more exotic techniques are used to craft policy that is in truth in the nature of an executive order.

Citation Details
Title: The Law: Presidential Memoranda and Executive Orders: Of Patchwork Quilts, Trump Cards, and Shell Games.
Author: Phillip J. Cooper
Publication:Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2001
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Page: 126

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