What powers are vested in the Executive Branch?

Executive privilege and issuance of executive orders

Question: What powers are vested in the Executive Branch?
Position1 of 4›: Executive Powers (Article II, Section 2 & 3)
Argument‹2 of 5›: Executive privilege and issuance of executive orders

Executive orders can be drafted by the President to instruct the will of the Executive Branch. These orders have been utilized by Presidents since the birth of the nation.

The argument

According to Article II, the president must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” This has often been accomplished through the use of executive orders. Of course, this ability is thoroughly checked by Congress and Federal Courts who may strike orders they find to exceed the President's scope of rule.

Premises

[P1]Article II requires the president to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed,' which has often been accomplished through the issuance of executive orders. [P2] This power is checked by Congress and the federal courts, which may strike orders they find to exceed the president's scope of rule. [C] Therefore, executive privilege and the issuance of executive orders are among the president's executive powers under Article II.

Counter-arguments

Neither power named here appears in Article II. The Take Care Clause of Article II, Section 3 directs the president to see that the laws are faithfully executed; it does not grant an instrument for doing so, and the executive order is a customary practice that developed through use rather than a textual grant. Executive privilege is further removed still — it is nowhere in the Constitution, and its qualified existence was recognised judicially only in 1974, when the Supreme Court simultaneously affirmed it and held it insufficient to withhold the Nixon tapes. The entry also joins two unrelated things under one heading. Executive privilege is a shield, concerning what an administration may withhold from Congress and the courts; executive orders are a sword, directing how the executive branch acts. Treating them as a single power obscures both. The description of the check is inaccurate. Federal courts may strike down an executive order that exceeds statutory or constitutional authority, but Congress cannot strike one; its remedies are legislative — passing a law that supersedes the order, withholding the funds required to implement it, or amending the delegated authority the order relies on. Since orders bind only the executive branch and can be revoked by any successor, the more significant limit is the next president's signature.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Article II's Take Care Clause imposes a duty rather than granting an order-issuing power, and executive privilege is not in the text at all — it was recognised judicially in 1974 and in the same ruling held to be qualified. [Rejecting P2] Congress cannot strike an executive order; it can legislate over it or defund it, while striking orders down is the courts' function — and the practical check is that a successor may simply revoke them.