Is An Executive Order a Law that Must be Obeyed?

There’s talk that President Obama will ignore Congress and issue Executive
Orders to implement new gun regulations over against the clear reading of the
Second Amendment to the Constitution. Is an Executive Order a law? Will we be
obligated to obey it?
Executive Orders have a long history. Republicans and Democrats have issued
them. Only a few of them have been overturned by the courts.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats do much about Executive Orders they don’t
like since both parties issue them. This is how the Washington game is played.

Republicans and Democrats like Executive Orders on difficult issues because it
stops the legislative process that they’ll have to participate in and
eventually vote yes or no. They can always tell the voters back home, “Well, I
would have voted against that if the President hadn’t issued an Executive
Order. Golly gee willikers, now my hands are tied.” Right.

An Executive Order is only valid if it’s done within the jurisdictional authority
of the President’s constitutional authority. To rule against the Second
Amendment is not a presidential prerogative. If it is, then the President could
turn his attention to the First Amendment and issue an order that newspapers
can no longer criticize him. Conservative talk radio would die a quick death if
the President issued an Executive Order saying that the freedom of speech had
to be limited in several ways, one of which was negative political speech,
especially about him.

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe that President Obama would like to do all
these things. He’s mad with power. He has a vendetta against America.

Chris
Matthews of MSNBC made a statement about how President Obama should have
been treated by presidential challenger Mitt Romney in their second debate. It
was the fact that Gov. Romney actually challenged the President that led Matthews
to go Gestapo on Romney:
 

The Democrats know this. That’s why they’re sending out Vice President Biden to
soften the rhetoric:

Biden went on to say that “this is a moral issue and that ‘it’s critically
important that we act.’” Morally, the President can’t ignore an Amendment to
the Constitution. How is banning guns for everyone the moral thing to do when
only a tiny fraction use guns illegally? How will banning guns to stop immoral
people from using whatever they can find to do harm?

Timothy McVeigh used kerosene and fertilizer to kill 169 people. Abortion
doctors use medical instruments to kill pre-born babies? A man was poisoned
with cyanide before he could cash in his $1 million dollar lottery ticket