426 Chapter 12Chapter 12 || The PresidencyThe PresidencyThe president also nominates individuals to fill federal judgeships, including
Supreme Court justices, although these nominations require Senate approval in order to
take effect. Because these positions are lifetime appointments, they enable the president
to put people into positions of power who will remain after he or she leaves office. For
example, in the first months of President Trump’s first term, he nominated many
young conservative justices to federal judgeships, including Supreme Court associate
justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The full effects of these and future judicial
appointments by Trump will not be completely apparent for years to come.
The need for Senate confirmation of the president’s appointments is one of the
fundamental limits on presidential power. Historically, the Senate has approved
virtually all nominees without much debate or controversy, although in recent years
senators (particularly Republicans during Obama’s presidency) have blocked votes
on judicial and agency nominees. Some of Trump’s cabinet appointees, including
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, were approved only because Vice President Mike
Pence (who is the president of the Senate under the Constitution) voted to break a tie.
Trump also nominated Andrew Puzder to be secretary of labor, but he was forced to
withdraw the nomination when it became clear that a majority of Senators opposed
Puzder’s candidacy.
If the Senate is in recess (adjourned for more than three days), the president can
make a recess appointment, whereby an appointee is temporarily given a position
without a Senate vote and holds the office until the beginning of the next congressional
session. All presidents make recess appointments, but typically for relatively minor
offices and for noncontroversial nominees—for example, when the Republican-
controlled Senate refused to vote on President Obama’s 2016 Supreme Court nominee,
Merrick Garland, it would have been highly unusual (and perhaps unconstitutional) for
President Obama to appoint Garland to the Supreme Court via a recess appointment.
In any case, the Senate can (and sometimes does) eliminate the possibility of recess
appointments by holding brief working sessions as often as needed to ensure that no
recess lasts more than three days.Executive Orders
Presidents have the power to issue executive orders—that is, proclamations that
unilaterally change government policy without subsequent congressional consent^12 —
as well as other kinds of orders that change policy, such as National Security
Presidential Directives and Presidential Findings (see the How It Works feature on
page 434). For example, one of President Trump’s memos issued in April 2018 ordered
National Guard troops to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico. An executive order issued
at the same time was designed to end the “catch and release” protocol whereby illegal
immigrants detained at the border were immediately sent back to Mexico without
detention or legal proceedings.
As the What Do the Facts Say? feature shows, all presidents issue many numbers of
executive orders. Most are not consequential, like the annual order that gives federal
employees an early dismissal on the last working day before Christmas. But some
executive orders implement large changes in federal policy. Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation was issued as an executive order. Similarly, President Trump issued a
series of executive orders in 2017 that were intended to limit the number of refugees
admitted to the United States each year.
Executive orders may appear to give the president authority to do whatever he or
she wants, even in the face of strong opposition from Congress. However, particularly
during the Trump administration, executive orders have been used to signal intentionsrecess appointment
Selection by the president of a person
to be an ambassador or the head of
a department while the Senate is
not in session, thereby bypassing
Senate approval. Unless approved
by a subsequent Senate vote, recess
appointees serve only to the end of the
congressional term.executive orders
Proclamations made by the president
that change government policy
without congressional approval.The public sees presidents as
speechmakers, but it’s mostly
butt-in-seat work, a continuous
cycle of meetings, decisions,
and preparation for meetings
and decisions. Governing is a lot
harder than tweeting.—Michael Grunwald,
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