Thursday, December 31, 2015

American History 101: Presidential Executive Orders

There seems to be an unending flap over how many and how often President Obama uses the executive orders that are at his disposal.  President Obama has been embroiled in controversy regarding executive orders that were about immigration law, gun control and several other issues.  Many people fear that the executive order power gives the President the ability to completely bypass Congress and take unilateral power.  And to some degree that is true, at least temporarily until Congress reacts.



But let's not forget the several landmark moments in American history that came about directly from the use of executive orders from the White House’s desk, including one Supreme Court decision that limited one presidential executive order issued by Harry Truman.  The constitutional base for the executive order is the president’s broad power to issue executive directives. According to the Congressional Research Service, there is no direct “definition of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and proclamations in the U.S. Constitution, there is, likewise, no specific provision authorizing their issuance.”

But Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests executive powers in the President, makes him the commander in chief, and requires that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Laws can also give additional powers to the President.  The order is a directive from the president that has much of the same power as a federal law. And like a federal law, Congress can pass a new law to override an executive order, subject to a presidential veto.

Every President since George Washington has used the executive order power in various ways, except one.  President William Henry Harrison did not issue one executive order!  Of course, he course he was only President for one month (March 4, 1841 - April 4, 1841).  Washington’s first orders were for executive departments to prepare reports for his inspection, and a proclamation about the Thanksgiving holiday.

In terms of executive orders, quality counts as much as quantity, and several significant Obama executive orders have some conservatives rallying around a lawsuit against the president, as well as threatening impeachment or a government shutdown.

There have been significant decisions made via executive orders and presidential proclamations.

President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War using executive orders in 1861. Lincoln cited his powers under the Constitution’s Suspension Clause, which states, “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion and invasion the public safety may require it.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney (the same judge who ruled on Dred Scott), in his role as a federal circuit judge, ruled that Lincoln’s executive order was unconstitutional in a decision called Ex Parte Merryman. Lincoln and the Union army ignored Taney, and Congress didn’t contest Lincoln’s habeas corpus decisions.

Two other executive orders comprised Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was fearful that the Emancipation Proclamation would be overturned by Congress or the courts after the war’s end, since he justified the proclamation under his war time powers. The ratification of the 13th Amendment ended that potential controversy.

President Franklin Roosevelt established internment camps during World War II using Executive Order 9066. Roosevelt also used an executive order to create the Works Progress Administration.

And President Harry Truman mandated equal treatment of all members of the armed forces through executive orders.  However, Truman also saw one of his key executive orders invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1952, in a watershed moment for the Court that saw it define presidential powers in relation to Congress.  nThe Court ruled in Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer that an executive order putting steel mills during the Korean War under federal control during a strike was invalid.  “The President’s power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker,” Justice Hugo Black said in his majority opinion.  It was Justice Robert Jackson’s concurring opinion that stated a three-part test of presidential powers that has since been used in arguments involving the executive’s overreach of powers.  Jackson said the President’s powers were at their height when he had the direct or implied authorization from Congress to act; at their middle ground – the Zone of Twilight, as he put it, when it was unsure which branch could act; and at their “lowest ebb” when a President acted against the expressed wishes of Congress.

The use of executive orders also played a key role in the Civil Rights movement. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower used an executive order to put the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and to enforce desegregation in Little Rock. Affirmative action and equal employment opportunity actions were also taken by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson using executive orders.

President Roosevelt issued the most executive orders, according to records at the National Archives. He issued 3,728 orders between 1933 and 1945, as the country dealt with the Great Depression and World War II.  President Truman issued a robust 896 executive orders over almost eight years in office.  And let us not forget that Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Theodore Roosevelt all issued over 1,000 executive orders while in office!

President Obama has issued almost 300 orders so far in his presidency. His predecessor, President George W. Bush, issued 291 orders over eight years, while President Bill Clinton had 364 executive orders during his two terms in office.  While some may continue to debate the validity of allowing one man the ability to make law, this essential Presidential power is here to stay so long as the system of checks and balances exists.  And even though the President can write law, Congress and the Supreme Court can overwrite it -- change it or strike it down all together.  Fear not American people, the one thing that continually changes in this country is the law.



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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  


Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel



Learn More!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

American History 101: The First Crematory in America

The subject of death and how America has dealt it with is a rich and fascinating subject.  Did you know that in 1861, when the Civil War broke out, the United States had no idea how to deal with massive amounts of death?  The Civil War brought ideas such as identification of the dead using dog tags, and a system by which the next of kin were notified by the government.  After over 600,000 Americans died in the war between the states, the images of the massive death, decay and disease were fresh in the minds of every American -- including Dr. Francis LeMoyne.  So when people in his community (Washington, PA) began to get sick with the same symptoms, and then die, Dr. LeMoyne began to search for the cause.  And the more he researched, the more convinced he was that the rituals used to inter and bury bodies was unsanitary, and the cause of the sickness and death.  He believed that when it rained, contaminates would run off from the burial sites into the rivers.  The people of the area would drink and cook with that water, and thusly would become sick from the tainted water.


LeMoyne looked to Europe as a solution for the problems sprouting in western Pennsylvania, he found that there were several crematories in Europe and felt that this was a more sanitary way to deal with the dead.  If the bodies of the dead were cremated, there would be no decomposition in the soil which caused the contamination of the local water supply.  LeMoyne approached the trustees of Washington and offered to pay for the construction of a crematorium on cemetery property but the trustees dismissed the idea out of hand.

Dr. LeMoyne believed in his idea so much that he not only put up his own money, but he set out to build the crematory on his own land.  In 1876, Dr. LeMoyne enlisted to help of John Dye, a local resident, and constructed a crematory on Gallows Hill based on only the most basic of information on how they were built in Europe.  Dye constructed a 30 by 20 foot building with two rooms at a cost of $1,500.  One room was a reception room for families to hold a funeral and reception, and the other was the oven room.  The oven room contained the oven in
which bodies were cremated.  The oven was designed by LeMoyne himself, and the flames would never touch the body.  The furnace was initially powered by coal, but later pipes were run and it was fueled by gas.

Baron de Palm was the cremated on December 6, 1876, becoming the first person to be cremated in the United States.  Baron de Palm was a recent immigrant from Austria, and thusly he was familiar with cremation.  When he passed away in New York, his remains were sent by train to Washington, PA.  The event was reported in newspapers all across the country.  Unfortunately, the cremation of Baron de Palm did not create acceptance of this new practice.  Quite the opposite.  LeMoyne was seen as a crazy old man with devilish ideas.  He was persecuted so much that he was eventually banished from his church.  LeMoyne did not take it all lying down, he even penned an essay that defended the practice of cremation that pulled from information found in the Bible to justify cremation as a valid way to dispose of dead bodies.  Even his citing the cremation of Saul and his sons wasn't enough to sway the heavily religious community.

By the time LeMoyne's crematorium was built and operational, the doctor was 78 years old.  In a twist of irony, Dr. LeMoyne passed away in October of 1878 and was the third person to be cremated here.  Today the small
unassuming building still sits on old Gallows Hill just off South Main Street in Washington.  It closed its oven in 1901 after 41 cremations and it maintained as a museum by the Washington County Historical Society.


LeMoyne's Crematory Today - Image courtesy of Patriot Portraits.
** The last image is used courtesy of George Neat and Patriot Portraits.  Please visit Patriot Portraits on Facebook.

~~~
Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  


Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel 

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

American History 101: The Electoral College - What's Wrong?

America is a government for the people, by the people... right?

Isn't that what you are taught in high school?  And in high school, do you remember that chapter in your American History text about the Electoral College?  No?  Not really?  Or maybe a little?

Since we are doing our every four year circus of electing a new President here in 2016, I thought as we move towards primary season it was worth revisiting the Electoral College: what it does, what it means to you as a voter, and the problems with this system.


In a nutshell: your vote for President of the United States does not count the way you think it does.

The Electoral College is the group that elects the President and the Vice President of the United States every four years.  Period.  There is no discussion... there is no debate.  These voters directly cast votes that are supposed to represent the will of the people of the state that the represent.  This usually happens -- but not always.  By most state's laws, the electors are expected to vote in accordance with the popular vote.  However, this is not enforceable in 21 of the 50 states.  Only 29 states have direct control over how their electors vote, while 21 have laws that compel them to vote in accordance with the popular vote.  In most of these states, if an elector does not vote the way his electorate has dictated, they are charged with a misdemeanor and fined.  But the vote is not changed.  This has happened in 19 elections in American history and 3 since 1988.


Electoral College Votes by State, 2012


The number of votes each state has is based on the total population of that state.  So, for example, Pennsylvania has a lot more electoral votes, 20,  (and a bigger say in who is elected) than Delaware, 3, does.  And these numbers change with every census that goes out.  That's the main reason why you should tell the census folks how many people live in your home.  That makes sense, right?  But what happens in California (55 votes) when Barack Obama gets 51% of the vote, and John McCain gets 49%?  If you said Barack Obama gets all 55 votes, you're right.  In 48 of the 50 states, the votes all go to the "winner" of the state based on the elector's vote, not necessarily the popular vote.  Today, only two states (Maine and Nebraska) can split their votes based on the actual popular vote -- what you and I would consider "the will of the people".  And, in the end, the candidate that wins the absolute majority of the electoral votes (270) becomes the next President of the United States.  And on four occasions in American history, the President elected by the Electoral College was *not* the President elected by the people.  Most of you will remember the last time this happened, in 2000 when George Bush was elected even though Al Gore had slightly more votes.  It is worth mentioning that in 2000, Barbara Lee Simmons did not cast her vote according to the will of her electors.  She was the Electoral College Representative from the District of Columbia.

While I won't go into detail in this post, the United States originally had straight popular elections.  But there were many problems with those elections -- one of which that spurred major election reform was the Election of 1824 that I previously BLOGged about.  

In essence, the Electoral College exists to further the operation of the government in more of a "status quo" and to ensure the smooth transition of power (See Election of 1824 for why), to boil it down more -- the government does not trust the American people to pick the President and Vice President.  So... what's really wrong with the Electoral College? Oh, so much...

Unfair Voting PowerThe way in which the Electoral College is designed gives an inordinate amount of power to specific states.  It really favors smaller states, giving more power to each individual vote.  For example, each individual vote in Wyoming counts 4 times as much as those in Texas.  Because Wyoming has 3 electoral college votes for 532,000 people while Texas has 32 votes for 25,000,000 people.  That is one vote for every 117,000 people in Wyoming, while Texas has one vote for very 715,000 people.  Sorry gang, that's not "one person, one vote" at all.

Here is a link to an article that goes into more detail about this disparity.


Winner Take All
As mentioned above, the Electoral College not only favors small states by giving more power per vote, but it also takes those votes and simply throws them at the person who gets one more vote.  Because of this, politicians are forced to campaign more in states where the votes count more.  So the mid-range vote states such as; Arizona (11), 
Georgia (16) and Indiana (11) are often less important to the candidates than California (55) and even Delaware (3).  This is because these states are often seen as not worthy of the campaign resources.  This also helps to disillusion voters.  For example, Pennsylvania is primarily a Democratic state as far as voting for the President goes.  Republicans may feel that their vote won't count at all because if the Republican candidate gets 49.9% of the vote, they will not receive any Electoral College votes.

Unbound Electors
There is no federal law that requires electors to vote in accordance with their electorate.  However, 29 states and the District of Columbia do have legal control over their electors vote in the Electoral College.  This means that their electors are bound by state law to vote for the candidate that has won the popular vote in their state.  However, even with these laws in place, the vote does not get changed should an elector not follow the law.  And they are often only charged with a misdemeanor and fined.  The election of 2000 had this happen in the District of Columbia.  And what of the other 21 states?  There are no laws that compel their electors to vote in any way other than what they feel is right.

Just think about that for a minute.  And the consider how much your vote next November will actually matter.  Here is a list of states in which there are laws that compel the vote.  If your state is *not* on this list, your vote is nothing more compelling then sitting in a bar and telling the bartender who you want to be President.



Reinforcement of the Two Party System
With all of the screaming for a "third party" -- why don't we have one?  The Electoral College is one good reason.  Since 1860, no party other than the Republican or Democrat has won a Presidential election.  Before that, we had Federalists, Whigs, Democratic-Republicans and other parties who were on the ballot and a real force in elections.

However, since most states are "winner take all" states, voters often can not get past the "lesser of two evils" mantra.  The vote for what they know because they think that voting for an independent or Libertarian candidate would be a wasted vote.  And they are more-or-less right, since it can be mathematically speaking voting for Donald Trump as an independent in 2016 could certainly impact the Republican candidates chances for any electoral votes.  Why the Republican Party is so weak is a different discussion, however this pushes people do always vote for the R or the D because they think it makes their vote mean more.  


And, in essence, it does.  However, consider what would happen if everyone voted for someone other than the R or the D... who would get elected?  We know that in 21 states -- all bets are off.  Pennsylvania could still vote Democrat with no repercussions!

The President Does Not Have To Be Who We Voted For
This is the culmination of all of the above... who you vote for really does not count.


Consider the election of 2000 as an example.  I will openly tell you I voted for George Bush.  Fine.  But George Bush did not win the popular vote.  In 1824, John Quincy Adams did not win the popular vote.  In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes did not win the popular vote.  These are failures of our electorate system -- and the Electoral College itself.  Yes, it has evolved with this nation as it has grown.  Yet... even today after 240 years the system still fails to represent the will of the people in a fair and balanced way.  Some people say, "it's the best we can do" -- but is it?  Are you willing to take that as the end of the story?

I am not.  We can do better!


~~~
Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  


Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of TimeTowering Pines Volume One:Room 509The Star of ChristmasPhiladelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel 



Learn More!