Tag
Presidential directives that carry the force of law. Tagged incidents involve executive orders that violate constitutional limits, international obligations, or that circumvent congressional authority.
8 incidents
An executive order stripped human rights safeguards from the US arms transfer framework, replacing decades of bipartisan policy with a commerce-first approach. The subsequent emergency bypass of congressional review for $23+ billion in Gulf arms sales demonstrated the immediate consequences of removing these guardrails.
An executive order attempting unprecedented presidential control over federal elections — requiring proof of citizenship to register, decertifying voting machines in 39 states, restricting mail ballots, and demanding state voter files — struck down by three federal courts as unconstitutional but partially implemented by compliant states ahead of the 2026 midterms.
A systematic campaign to destroy the International Criminal Court's ability to hold Americans accountable for war crimes, combining unprecedented sanctions on judges with demands to rewrite the Rome Statute itself. The campaign goes far beyond any previous US opposition to the ICC, seeking not merely non-cooperation but the permanent restructuring of international criminal justice.
A sweeping executive order redefining sex across the federal government, with material consequences for transgender individuals in detention, healthcare, and civil documentation.
The administration imposed an unprecedented total ban on asylum claims at the southern border, shutting down the CBP One app and eliminating all avenues for protection. A federal judge ruled the president 'cannot adopt an alternative immigration system which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.'
An executive order attempting to override the Fourteenth Amendment's birthright citizenship guarantee by executive fiat, blocked by every court to consider it and now before the Supreme Court.
Executive order reversing the federal execution moratorium and mandating the death penalty be sought for all murders by undocumented immigrants 'regardless of other factors' — creating a discriminatory two-tier system where immigration status, not the severity of the crime, determines whether the government seeks death.
Executive Order 14151 directed elimination of all federal DEI programs. DOGE implemented a three-phase purge, firing thousands of workers — including many who had no current DEI role — using AI tools to identify targets. A December 2025 class-action lawsuit alleges the purge targeted minorities, women, and LGBTQ+ employees.