Executive Orders

If Paul Blumstein (letter, July 8) wants to void all executive orders, we can give back Alaska, the Louisiana Purchase and reinstate all the debts forgiven by Nixon in his sweeping executive order regarding our foreign debts (1968). And who knows what else will have to be changed if we determine that executive orders can be retroactively forbidden. I know and you know that that is an ex post facto law, but then, the people out to "get" Clinton don't care how badly they damage the Constitution in the process.

WASHINGTON - President Obama issued an executive order Tuesday that seeks to shore up the nation's cyber-defenses by improving how classified information is shared between the government and the owners and operators of crucial infrastructure, including electric utilities, dams and mass transit. The long-expected order, which Obama announced in his State of the Union speech, is a stopgap measure that follows Congress' failure last year to pass legislation to create comprehensive standards for the private sector to help thwart digital attacks.

President Reagan abolished a record 386 presidential executive orders with one stroke of the pen Tuesday and signed a new one the White House said could save $20 billion a year by 1992 by making federal employees more productive. The White House said the orders revoked are obsolete or inactive. The orders cover a wide range of subjects, from examination for appointment to the military and naval academies to continuing the President's Advisory Committee on Women's Business Ownership.

WASHINGTON - Illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens will have an easier path to permanent residency under a new Obama administration rule that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million people unlawfully in the United States. The rule issued Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their U.S. families while seeking legal status, officials said. Beginning March 4, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create "extreme hardship" can apply for a visa without leaving the United States.

With 17 months of his presidency remaining, Ronald Reagan will bank on executive orders and judicial action to implement social policies that he cannot persuade Congress to enact, Gary L. Bauer, the President's chief domestic policy adviser, declared Thursday.

President Bush on Wednesday issued the executive order he promised last November to protect Chinese students from deportation to their politically troubled homeland. Bush directed the attorney general to defer until Jan. 1, 1994, any deportation proceedings against Chinese nationals who were in the United States on or after June 5, 1989, and whose visas expire.

President-elect Bill Clinton's top spokesman said Wednesday that he expects Clinton to end the ban on homosexuals in the military by issuing an executive order, an action sought by gay-rights advocates who objected to proposals that a less forceful mechanism be used. Asked at Clinton's daily briefing how the President-elect intends to end the long-standing ban, communications director George Stephanopoulos said: "I expect it will be eventually by executive order.

In this, his longest and lumpiest collage of fundamental values and techno-babble, Tom Clancy resolves our Clinton-Dole-Perot-Nader uncertainties by suggesting the least of five evils: Jack Ryan for president. Ryan--the indestructible, tighter-zippered superhero tied to Clancy and the CIA as closely as martini-weenie James Bond was to Ian Fleming and MI5--certainly speaks what the electorate knows in its heart is right: "Please, do not send me politicians.

Acting to defuse criticism on the eve of controversial global trade talks, the White House promised Tuesday to conduct environmental reviews of future trade agreements to reassure Americans that their safety and health are not in jeopardy.

In Buena Park, police are distributing fliers to merchants, urging them to dim their lights at night. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies are paying friendly visits to stores illuminated with unusually large amounts of decorative lighting. But elsewhere across Southern California, officers are resisting the role of "power police." It's been a week since Gov.

Re "Family of a fallen Marine sees his citizenship dream fulfilled," Dec. 7 The whole idea of "posthumous citizenship" is almost Dickensian in its "pound-of-flesh" approach. The cynic in me sees this as a warm and fuzzy human interest story to make those who oppose a rational immigration policy feel human. So many questions jump out: Why did it take his death for Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez to become a citizen? Why isn't citizenship automatic upon military enlistment or entry into a combat unit?

A contingent of civil and immigrant rights organizations launched a lawsuit Thursday against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, challenging an executive order she issued that denies driver's licenses to some youths who recently received immigration relief and work permits under a new Obama administration program. "This lawsuit is important because it's basically about the rights of young people to go about their daily lives and ability to be able to support their families," said Shiu-Ming Cheer, coauthor of the suit and immigration attorney with the National Immigration Law Center.

In addition to the relentless onslaught of mostly negative ads from the Romney and Obama campaigns and their affiliated "super PACs," the good people of Ohio are finding themselves targeted by a right-wing conspiracy maven who is dispensing a DVD that pushes beyond the birthers into a new level of paranoid fantasy. "Dreams From My Real Father" is being sent to 1 million Ohio voters. The DVD makes the claim that, rather than being the son of a student from Kenya, the president was sired by a communist from Chicago named Frank Marshall Davis.

WASHINGTON - President Obama issued a proclamation Monday making October National Cyber Security Awareness Month. But with cyber security proposals stuck in Congress, the Obama administration is moving to do more than create an awareness month. The White House, as first reported by the Associated Press , began to draft an executive order after the shutdown of the Obama-approved Cyber Security Act of 2012 in the Senate in August . “We are very cognizant that in some industries there exist already regulatory authorities that can be used for cyber security,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at the National Journal's Cyber Security Summit.

Using his executive powers to go where Congress would not, President Obama delivered on a promise Friday and ordered his administration to stop deporting illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, a shift that could affect more than 1 million people. The new policy allows younger immigrants to apply for a two-year renewable reprieve on deportation, providing they have no criminal record. It is unlikely to settle the nation's bitter debate over immigration, but may be pivotal in the battle for Latino voters in the presidential campaign.

During a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Chairman Patrick Leahy and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. appeared to share a chuckle over issues related to the targeted killing last year of an American citizen by the United States. According to news reports, Leahy good-naturedly reminded the attorney general that his committee was still waiting for a copy of a classified Department of Justice memorandum in which the killing was justified on statutory and constitutional grounds. With a smile and a laugh, Holder acknowledged that there was disagreement within the administration about whether to honor Leahy's request.

President Bush, seeking to avoid renewed controversy over his policy toward China, announced Friday that he will formalize and expand the protections reluctantly given four months ago to Chinese students in the United States. The President told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that he will issue a formal executive order guaranteeing that more than 40,000 Chinese students at American universities will be able to remain in this country at least until 1994.

Among his first official acts after taking the oath of office, President-elect Bill Clinton is expected to issue a series of executive orders dealing with abortion counseling, medical research, organized labor and other high-profile policy matters. In most instances, the presidential orders will implement campaign promises made to women, gays, labor unions and other groups that supported the Democratic ticket and whose views coincide with those of the incoming President.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that if Mitt Romney won the South Carolina primary, the Republican presidential race would be over and he would be the nominee. But Romney didn't win, and that means it's time to consider the unthinkable: What would life under President Gingrich be like? It's an easy question to answer because Gingrich has spent much of his campaign listing all the things he wants to do - not only in his first term or his first 100 days but in his first eight hours.

With the appointment of Jacob Lew as his new chief of staff, President Obama chose a Washington veteran who is well-liked on Capitol Hill, but — just as important for dealing with hostile Republicans in a election year — is also an expert on the executive powers Obama can use to advance his agenda without lawmakers' cooperation. Lew, who replaces William M. Daley, steps into the role after a year of fierce partisan battles that saw Obama's policy goals largely stalled in Congress.