What if I was elected President of the United States...

[brentspeak]

...and announced to the American public from my desk in the Oval Office that "By executive order, from this day forward, no appointed or elected federal government official, be they a member of the judicial, executive, or legislative branch of the United States government, may receive or solicit money or any other material good from private or public special interest groups, including private businesses or foreign governments."

Would the Senate assassinate me the next day? Is it Constitutional for a President to issue that kind of executive order?

[nookiemonster]

1. Assassinated the next day??????

Shit, They'd have your head on a pike before dusk.

:silly:

[Wickerman]

2. Impeachment, minimally

and very quickly. The doctored photos of you and the dead girl or the live boy would be in papers and on the evening news by the end of the day.

[mattclearing]

3. Not Constitutional.

The President has no jurisdiction over the other branches unless it is passed by Congress and needs the president's signature.

Executive orders are meant to interpret the law as legislated for the purposes of enforcement, not create new ones, but that is the end result sometimes.

Incidentally, executive orders are already out of control, so it wouldn't be the first one to overstep executive authority.

Still not constitutional, though.

[AlGore-08.com]

4. Exactly - - Congress would have to pass a law to this effect

You could use the "bully pulpit" of the Oval Office to demand that the Congress pass this bill, but if they didn't, you couldn't force them to do it or go over their heads.

And even if Congress did pass such a bill and you signed it into law, there is a nearly 100% chance that some yahoo will appeal it all the way up to the Extreme Court, claiming its an infringement of Free Speech. Given the current Court - - and it's likely makeup once Roberts is on the bench - - dollars to donuts the Extreme Court would rule it unconstitutional.

So then you'd have to get a Constitutional Amendment passed to make your idea Constitutional, which would require consent of 3/4 of the states and then 2/3 majority in Congress...