The White House: Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies

Sec. 7. Rules of Conduct Guiding Federal Employees’ Interpretation of the Law. The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President or in writing by the Attorney General.

To be super clear, this executive order instructs federal employees of the federal government to ignore Supreme Court rulings and congressional actions if the President or Attorney General tell them to. This is a slap in the face of the US Constitution and to the separation of powers. This “the President answers to no one” order is absurd.

Let’s say the Supreme Court declares this order to be unconstitutional, what happens? By the letter of the order, the President says it doesn’t, so they keep following it because the Judicial branch of government is more of a suggestion engine than a co-equal branch of government.