Dear President-elect Obama,
I decided to add one more open letter to the stack of open letters that have already been written to you. While I realize that it is unlikely you will read this particular letter, I felt this issue to be important enough to add my voice.
I have heard about your plan to undo perhaps some 200 of Bush's executive orders as soon as you take office, by issuing some executive orders of your own. While I applaud this measure, and would specifically like to bring EO 13233 to your attention, I do want to say something about this.
The point that I want to make is simply what I have stated in my title: executive orders are not enough.
Update with reply to comments: I suppose that this open letter comes early, I do know that he is not in office yet. But it was on my mind, it is an important issue, and at least now there is SOME chance that this issue might get some attention from him, while he is not yet busy with actual governing.
What do I mean by this? Executive orders are of course a quick way to undo other executive orders, since no bill has to be passed. This will solve the problem, for now. That is to say, in principle it will solve the problem for as long as you will be in office. But you will not be there forever.
There will be other presidents. Some of them will be just as power-hungry as Bush, if not worse, regardless of what party they may be from. And they can undo your executive orders just as you did Bush's, with the same ease. If you start your presidency by issuing executive orders to undo other executive orders, you are setting a bad precedent. Bush tried to legislate via executive order, and this is not something that should become a pattern.
Therefore I would urge you to take steps to codify your orders, particularly the ones undoing Bush' orders, into law. The founders understood that the rule of law must be paramount. Having taught constitutional law, I am sure that you agree with them. Please do not make the United States another country which is ruled by men and not by laws.
As president, you are in a unique position to make changes in this regard. Regrettably, Congress over the last few years has been extremely passive and has rarely acted as a counterbalancing force to the president. With Congress now under the control of your party, it seems that this is unlikely to change anytime soon.
But you can cede some of these ill-gotten powers yourself by making sure that the proper bills are introduced and passed into law. What I am asking you is in essence to do a reverse Bush and leave your office in a "worse" shape than you found it - which will be a far better way for the world.
Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in a recent interview that Mr. Bush was determined to make maximum use of presidential powers.
''The framers of the Constitution, I think, intended there to be a strong presidency in order to carry out certain functions,'' Mr. Gonzales said, ''and he feels an obligation to leave the office in better shape than when he came in.''
- The New York Times, May 20, 2002.
Regards,
Twoflower