A couple of years ago, after President Trump backed out of the Paris Climate Treaty and the Iran Nuclear Deal, I wrote a column for “Historically Speaking,” justifying his actions because those deals had been made by executive orders so could legally be overturned by executive order. At the same time, I argued that modern executive orders such as these went beyond the authority of the president and should be handled by Congress. If you want more proof of the folly of executive orders, on the first day of President Biden’s term, he signed into effect 15 new executive orders, one of which was to reenter the Paris Climate Deal. As with my first article, I am not arguing that we should or should not join with the climate agreement. My argument is about the process. The very fact that Obama can join it, Trump pull us out, then Biden rejoin – all done by one man and the stroke of his pen – goes beyond the scope of power the founders envisioned.
