Executive Orders

According to the National Organization for Human Services, human services workers need to “have preparation which helps them to understand human development, group dynamics, organizational structure, how communities are organized, how national policy is set, and how social systems interact in producing human problems.” A key service performed by human services workers is integrating their clients into the community by helping them obtain a job. Human services workers serve a wide variety of clients, including the elderly, [Page 499]homeless, immigrants, and veterans, as well as people with addictions, criminal records, disabilities, and mental illnesses. Many of these groups may be subject to different types of discrimination and stigma.

President Barack Obama signs legislation in the Oval Office on December 22, 2010. Executive orders (EOs) are issued by the president and have the full force of law, even without the approval of Congress. EOs differ in that they cannot create new laws and can only interpret old ones. EOs generally affect only government workers and contractors

As such, it is important for human services workers to advocate for their clients, repudiate potential stereotypes, and remind employers of the legal statutes protecting their clients. To do this, human services workers must be familiar with past employment laws to help protect and advocate for their clients in the employment sphere.

Legislation passed by Congress is not the only way laws are enacted. Executive orders (EOs) are issued by the president and have the full force of law, despite not being approved by Congress. Presidents have the right to issue EOs due to an overarching grant of “executive power” in the Constitution and a clause charging them to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” However, EOs differ from actual laws in that EOs cannot create new laws, but only interpret old ones. Generally, EOs are used to manage the federal government and affect only government workers and contractors.

In the past, EOs have been used by presidents to protect equality as well as perpetuate inequality. For example, Executive Order 10730, issued by President Dwight Eisenhower, sent troops to protect African American students trying to integrate into a public school in Arkansas. However, Executive Order 9066 issued, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowed Japanese Americans to be put in internment camps during World War II. Although some have contested the president's right to make laws without congressional approval, executive orders continue to be an active part of the legislative process.

[Page 500]EOs started to be numbered under President Abraham Lincoln, and there have been well over 13,000 executive orders enacted. However, only Recently have presidents begun to issue executive orders protecting the increasingly diverse populations found in the United States. One of the first executive orders protecting the rights of citizens was Executive Order 8802, issued in 1941 by President Roosevelt, which prohibited discrimination by defense contractors based on race, creed (also known as religion), color, or national origin.

The EO also established the Fair employment Practices Committee, which did not last long and was terminated in 1945. President Harry S Truman expanded upon this in 1948 when he announced Executive Order 9981, which required equal treatment, regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin, in the armed services. He established a committee called the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces, which was abolished two years later in 1950.

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