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Official Statement on Executive Orders
On his first day in office, as promised, President Trump signed 26 executive orders â a significant departure from past administrations. The sheer number and scope of orders signed on a single day is overwhelming. Governing by mandate is designed to disrupt and show force. It does not honor the dispersion of power and checks and balances so carefully built into our Constitution, and it violates historical norms that have ensured stability and consistency of expectation for the governed. Although executive orders should be reserved for administrative directives or actual emergencies, in recent decades they have been regularly used by presidents of both parties to bypass deliberative legislative process and…
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What Type of Government Is the United States of America?
The U.S. is recognized all over the world for its distinctive form of representative government. When we understand our governmentâs structure under the Constitution, we are empowered to make more informed choices as we strive to elect worthy representatives, advocate for our policy preferences, and protect what we value. President Dallin Oaks has taught that one of the inspired principles of our Constitution is popular sovereignty. In other words, the people hold the ultimate power, not the government. The Constitution begins, âWe the people of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this Constitutionâ in service of the lofty ideals articulated in the preamble. Below, we offer…
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Civil Service and Project 2025Â
Liz VanDerwerken, proactive root director for Mormon Women for Ethical Government, recently spoke with Erica Newland, counsel at Protect Democracy, about broad reforms to the civil service proposed in Project 2025. Here is a summary of their conversation. What is the civil service? The civil service is the civilian workforce of the federal government. For example, engineers at the Environmental Protection Agency and your local mail carrier in the U.S. Postal Service are civil servants. Civil servants most often keep their jobs when a presidential administration changes, while political appointees are chosen by elected officials and change with administrations. For example, a newly elected U.S. president will appoint a new…
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The Importance of Improving Global Health
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently donated $55.8 million to 12 nonprofit organizations dedicated to strengthening health and nutrition systems in countries throughout the world. The money is expected to reach 12 million children and 2.7 million expectant mothers through programs focused on treating and preventing malnutrition, providing maternal mental healthcare, and strengthening food systems. Relief Society General President Camille M. Johnson stated, âWhenever we do anything to bring relief to others â temporal or spiritual â we are bringing them to Jesus Christ and will be blessed to find our own relief in Him.â Improving global health is one of the greatest ways to bring relief…
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The Peaceful Transition of Presidential Power
After King Benjamin advised his people concerning their dealings with one another, he urged, âAnd see that these things be done in wisdom and in order,â repeating, âall things must be done in orderâ (Mosiah 4:27). Applying this counsel to our citizenship, we can support the peaceful transition of presidential power by advocating for a process with wisdom and order overarching. After serving two terms as the first president of the newly formed United States, long before term limits were established, George Washington declined running for a third term, in part to keep a promise he made early on to not seek âunfair power.â Thus began the history of the…
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Presidential Pardons: Possibilities, Precedents, and Problems
With presidential pardons in recent news, MWEG offers a Q&A to sort through possibilities, precedents, and potential problems with this presidential power. Q: What are the purposes and types of presidential pardons?A: This power allows a president to forgive criminal offenses through pardons, amnesty, commutation, and reprieve. Informed by the British monarchy, the executive power to pardon was intended to add elements of mercy and clemency to the Constitution. The assumption held that men of virtue would exercise this power for the good of the people and not for their own purposes. Pardons grant the person complete legal forgiveness of a crime, as if it had never happened. Amnesty does…
