Executive orders: what they can actually do
The answer
An executive order is not a law and cannot create one. It is a directive telling federal agencies how to use authority they already have, from the Constitution or from a statute Congress already passed. The folk model treats an executive order as the president unilaterally making a rule. The mechanism that actually breaks that model is that courts can and do strike orders down when they exceed that existing authority, and one recent order took less than three days to get its first court block.
How it actually works
A president signs an executive order, it is published in the Federal Register, and it directs executive branch agencies on enforcement priorities, internal management, or how to interpret and apply existing law. It cannot appropriate money, only Congress can, cannot create a new criminal offense, and cannot override a statute Congress has passed.1 If an order conflicts with existing law or exceeds constitutional authority, anyone with legal standing can sue, and federal courts decide whether it survives, up to and including the Supreme Court.
Example: Executive Order 14160, signed January 20, 2025, attempted to end birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized or certain temporary immigrants. A federal district judge issued a temporary restraining order on January 23, 2025, just three days later, calling it blatantly unconstitutional, then a preliminary injunction on February 6, 2025. A second court granted its own preliminary injunction in a parallel case on July 10, 2025. The Supreme Court finally struck the order down as unconstitutional on June 30, 2026, in Barbara v. Trump, roughly a year and a half after it was signed.2
Even absent a full court strike-down, Congress can blunt an order without touching it directly, by denying funding needed to implement it, a real check even though it cannot repeal the order's text. And not every challenge succeeds or lasts: in February 2026 the Fourth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction against two DEI-related executive orders (EO 14151 and EO 14173) in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump, showing the same order can be blocked, then unblocked, as litigation moves up the court system.
Who holds the power
The president decides what to order, bounded by whatever authority already exists in the Constitution or statute. Federal courts have final say on whether an order was lawful. Congress can pass a superseding statute or cut off implementation funding, but cannot repeal an order directly. Only the president can rescind his own order, or a successor can rescind it.
Where you come in
See the guides on how to contact your member of Congress about defunding an order's implementation and how to reach committee staff tracking related oversight.
Related
Glossary: executive order, preliminary injunction, standing
See also the explainer on appropriations vs. authorization.