I see it's time for yet another episode of “no, just because you call it an executive order doesn’t make it law.”

I can't believe I have to do this again.

Traditionally, executive orders are instructions to agency officials about how to exercise their congressionally delegated powers. Maybe they should issue a new rule or set new enforcement priorities.

Those executive orders -- and that's most of them -- don’t have legal effect. They’re just internal memos with a fancy header. That’s all they are.

Now, in rare cases, the president has himself been delegated authority to do discrete things, usually with respect to emergencies or foreign affairs. And he might use an executive order to exercise that authority.

Incidentally, that’s why state COVID restrictions are generally being issued by executive order. State legislatures have delegated emergency powers to the governor, and he or she is exercising those powers.

But that’s now what we have here. Congress hasn't delegated to President Trump the power to prohibit discrimination against the sick. Not even close!

Do I *really* have to explain this yet again? Apparently, yes. Time is a flat circle.

The only protections that exist come from the Affordable Care Act—the very law that the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/opinion/trump-supreme-court-obamacare.html

So his executive order has no more legal weight than this tweet.

If you can't believe I'm still here doing this right now, trust me when I tell you I can't believe it either. It is all so very dumb.

Trump has issued it so he's got a talking point ("I issued an executive order protecting people with preexisting conditions"). And he'll pick up some headlines from some credulous press outlets.

What this isn't is a news story.

Or if it *is* a news story, it's one about how the White House is using fancy letterhead to confuse the American public about health care before the presidential election.

That ends today's episode, thanks for watching, I'm sure we'll be back next week.