In an attempt to combat a post-Roe world, President Biden issued an expansive executive order that creates new ways for the federal government through its bureaucracy to use taxpayer dollars for the benefit, access, and support of abortion. This unconstitutional action must be exposed for what it is: an unenforceable power grab. Neither the states nor the American people can afford to succumb to such tyranny. I am reminded of a quote by James Madison: “The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.”

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Does Article II of the Constitution grant power for Biden’s abortion executive order? No.

The Biden Administration should be reminded that Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution states: “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Executive power is the authority to execute the existing federal statutes and the Constitution, not to create new laws. Article I of the Constitution vests Congress with the legislative or lawmaking authority. Additionally, Section 3 of Article II states further that “ … he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. … ” This constitutional caution is not to be taken lightly. The Constitution requires the president to take care that he is faithfully executing existing laws.

Does the presidential oath of office grant power for Biden’s executive order? No.

Additionally, the president takes this oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The Constitution plus this oath demonstrate that Biden’s executive order fails to defend the Constitution and is arguably treasonous.

Exceeding the commission from which he derives his authority brands him a tyrant; it leaves him with no viable argument that he is in any way attempting to defend the Constitution through his most recent executive order. Not surprisingly, not one of the actions he has included within this executive order is enabled by the Constitution.

Do the enumerated powers of the Constitution grant power for Biden’s executive order? No.

The Constitution is a document of enumerated powers. This simply means that the only authority granted to those who hold office within the federal government is that which is restricted to those few areas specifically enumerated within the Constitution. Those areas not so enumerated were intended to remain strictly outside the purview of the federal government and are reserved to the states and to the people, as expressed in the Tenth Amendment.

Enumerated Powers (synopsis from Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution):

• Congress may lay and collect taxes.
• Congress may borrow money.
• Congress may regulate national and international trade.
• Congress may establish rules for naturalization and bankruptcy laws.
• Congress may coin money.
• Congress may set the standard for weights and measures.
• Congress may punish counterfeiters.
• Congress may establish post offices and post roads.
• Congress may issue patents to inventors, and copyrights to authors.
• Congress may establish federal courts.
• Congress may punish piracy and crimes at sea.
• Congress may declare war.
• Congress may raise and support armies.
• Congress may establish and maintain a navy.
• Congress may establish rules to govern both land and sea forces.
• Congress may dispatch forces to suppress rebellion, prevent invasion, and/or enforce the laws.
• Congress may organize, arm, and discipline the military.
• Congress may exercise control over the District of Columbia and over federal forts and arsenals.

None of these enumerated powers enables Biden’s executive order.

Do the general welfare clause or the necessary and proper clause grant Biden power for his abortion executive order? No.

President Biden might mistakenly believe that the general-welfare clause or the necessary-and-proper clause affords him expansive constitutional power. But these clauses were intended to be further limits on the authority of the federal government; they are not (nor can they logically serve as) additional enumerations of power.

Both clauses were intended to limit the ability of Congress to exercise control over the areas already enumerated. In short, Congress may enact laws within the enumerated areas, but only to the extent that such laws are for the welfare of the United States as a whole; they cannot be enacted for the benefit of specific individuals or special interest groups. Hence, it is referred to as the general welfare clause, being intended for the welfare of the United States as a nation generally. Additionally, the laws Congress enacts are not to be expansive and burdensome. In other words, legislation within any of the specifically enumerated powers is not to be overly broad; it must be limited to the extent that is deemed both necessary and proper.

I realize that the impact of these clauses has been repeatedly misinterpreted as granting to Congress additional enumerated powers. Such an interpretation, however, is illogical. Were these clauses to be allowed to serve as enumerated powers, they would provide Congress with a blank check to do whatever it deems necessary and proper or what may be subjectively argued as serving the general welfare. Undeniably, such expansive power would make the doctrine of enumerated powers of no effect. Why would the Founders have gone to the trouble of enumerating specific powers if they had in fact intended to give the federal government carte blanche? Such a constitutional interpretation is decidedly illogical.

Bottom line: Biden’s Executive Order is Unconstitutional

Looking at the list of actions slated for implementation via Biden’s executive order, it’s evident that there is literally nothing that falls within the purview of what could be deemed constitutional. Additionally, as I noted earlier, the Constitution grants the executive branch the power to execute the laws that already exist, not to make new ones. And since the Constitution grants no basis for such “new laws” to be enacted, there can in fact be no such laws at all. In short, there are no legitimate laws for this administration to execute to fulfill this diabolical plan for improperly utilizing taxpayer dollars to support access to abortion.

The allocation of federal taxpayer dollars in any fashion to afford individual citizens access to the means of ending the lives of their preborn children finds no support within either the text or the spirit of the Constitution. As a matter of fact, any such would be an unjust law. [Life Is Already a Constitutional Right] This can blatantly be seen where Biden is attempting to create such rights through executive order. And this would be true even if Congress were at some point to attempt to legislate such rights.

Despite all its constitutional blunders, Biden’s executive order does in fact serve one extremely important purpose: It highlights the urgent need for extensive civic education — just not through the unconstitutional Department of Education. Perhaps we should raise the bar with the expectation by voters that their elected officials not only swear to uphold the Constitution, but that they have also at minimum read it.

Cynthia Dunbar is an attorney, a constitutional scholar, a former law professor at Liberty University School of Law, and a board member of IFA. To learn more about A NIGHT FOR LIFE — a national event of prayer and praise to see the dominion of death bow to the person of LIFE — go to www.awakeningarise.com. To learn more about how our constitutional republic is to function, go to www.dunbarforamerica.com.

If  you would like to take part in a national event of prayer and praise lifting up the person of LIFE, JESUS CHRIST, as we continue to see the dominion of death defeated in every state in our nation, please join us July 22 at A NIGHT FOR LIFE.