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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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📊 Computational Linguistics & Constitutional Trends

Presidential Analytics & Graphs

Quantifying presidential power: how executive orders evolved from brief 100-word wartime decrees into massive regulatory frameworks.

Longest Executive Order
Executive Order 10214—Prescribing the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951
Harry S Truman 52,110 words (~261m)
Most Concise Executive Order
Executive Order 7005—Revocation of Executive Order No. 6832, of August 23, 1934, Making Funds Available for Expenses of the National Railroad Adjustment Board
Franklin D. Roosevelt 31 words (~1m)
Readability & Legal Density
Post-Graduate Level (Grade 18+)

Modern executive orders require an average of 18-22 years of formal education (equivalent to a Master's or J.D. degree) to parse effectively.

⚖️ Separation of Powers & Framers' Intent

Constitutional Balance Across Presidencies

Measuring presidential power through Justice Robert H. Jackson's Youngstown framework (1952) and the baseline established by George Washington in 1789.

Zone 1: Maximum Authority 36.7%
3,981 orders

Statutory Execution: President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress under Article II, §3 (Take Care Clause).

Zone 2: Zone of Twilight 61.1%
6,635 orders

Congressional Silence: President acts in absence of either a grant or denial of authority; internal civil service management and foreign diplomacy.

Zone 3: Lowest Ebb 2.2%
236 orders

High Friction / Overreach: President takes measures in tension with Congress, reallocates funds, or unilateral property/liberty commands.

Youngstown Distribution by Presidency

Proportion of each administration's orders under Zone 1 (green), Zone 2 (amber), and Zone 3 (rose).

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3
Franklin D. Roosevelt (3701 orders)
23.1% Z1 • 74.4% Z2 • 2.6% Z3 (95)
Herbert Hoover (1001 orders)
23.6% Z1 • 75.8% Z2 • 0.6% Z3 (6)
Harry S. Truman (907 orders)
19% Z1 • 78.7% Z2 • 2.3% Z3 (21)
Donald Trump (512 orders)
99.2% Z1 • 0% Z2 • 0.8% Z3 (4)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (483 orders)
27.7% Z1 • 67.9% Z2 • 4.3% Z3 (21)
Ronald Reagan (381 orders)
43% Z1 • 55.6% Z2 • 1.3% Z3 (5)
Bill Clinton (364 orders)
92.3% Z1 • 7.1% Z2 • 0.5% Z3 (2)
Richard Nixon (346 orders)
38.7% Z1 • 60.1% Z2 • 1.2% Z3 (4)
Lyndon B. Johnson (325 orders)
33.5% Z1 • 64% Z2 • 2.5% Z3 (8)
Jimmy Carter (320 orders)
37.8% Z1 • 58.1% Z2 • 4.1% Z3 (13)
George W. Bush (291 orders)
91.1% Z1 • 7.9% Z2 • 1% Z3 (3)
Barack Obama (276 orders)
97.5% Z1 • 2.2% Z2 • 0.4% Z3 (1)
John F. Kennedy (214 orders)
29.4% Z1 • 58.9% Z2 • 11.7% Z3 (25)
Grover Cleveland (173 orders)
28.9% Z1 • 71.1% Z2
Gerald Ford (169 orders)
35.5% Z1 • 63.3% Z2 • 1.2% Z3 (2)
George H. W. Bush (166 orders)
68.7% Z1 • 27.1% Z2 • 4.2% Z3 (7)
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The "Washington Standard" & Presidential Power Inflation

George Washington issued just 8 executive orders across 8 years (1.0 order per year), averaging 180 words per order. He used them exclusively for ceremonial proclamations (Thanksgiving) and basic departmental reports. Below is how subsequent presidencies multiplied executive power beyond the founding baseline:

Highest Volume Expansion vs Washington (1.0/yr)

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
308.4/yr 308× Multiplier
2. Herbert Hoover
250.3/yr 250× Multiplier
3. Harry S. Truman
113.4/yr 113× Multiplier
4. John F. Kennedy
107.0/yr 107× Multiplier
5. Donald Trump
86.8/yr 87× Multiplier
6. Jimmy Carter
80.0/yr 80× Multiplier
7. Richard Nixon
69.2/yr 69× Multiplier
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
60.4/yr 60× Multiplier
9. Gerald Ford
56.3/yr 56× Multiplier
10. Lyndon B. Johnson
54.2/yr 54× Multiplier

Highest Friction / Zone 3 Concentration min. 20 orders

1. John F. Kennedy
25 orders 11.7% Zone 3
2. Abraham Lincoln
8 orders 6.7% Zone 3
3. Dwight D. Eisenhower
21 orders 4.3% Zone 3
4. George H. W. Bush
7 orders 4.2% Zone 3
5. Jimmy Carter
13 orders 4.1% Zone 3
6. Woodrow Wilson
6 orders 4% Zone 3
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt
95 orders 2.6% Zone 3
8. Lyndon B. Johnson
8 orders 2.5% Zone 3

*Zone 3 spikes correlate historically with wartime mobilizations, unilateral property/asset freezes, emergency powers declarations, and regulatory decrees issued without express congressional authorization.

Evaluated Across Five Measurable Constitutional Dimensions

Article I Legislative Encroachment • Article II Executive Scope • Tenth Amendment Federalism • Due Process & Private Property • Youngstown Jacksonian Doctrine.

Read Audit Methodology →

⚖️ Constitutional Alignment & Sentiment

Evaluated strictly through the U.S. Constitution (Articles I–VII) & Amendments from an Early Statesman's prism

10852 Scored
2169 (20%)
Constitutional Fidelity
Art. II §3 faithful statutory execution & civil liberty protection
8451 (78%)
Constitutional Neutral
Routine departmental administration, civil service, executive seals
232 (2%)
Friction & Overreach
Art. I purse/commerce tension, 10th Amend federalism, property takings

The Word Count Explosion

Average words per Executive Order: concise historical decrees vs modern multi-thousand word regulatory directives

200 wpm standard
Joe Biden
1,997 words • ~10 min
James K. Polk
1,525 words • ~8 min
Donald Trump
1,258 words • ~6 min
Barack Obama
1,197 words • ~6 min
Bill Clinton
863 words • ~4 min
George W. Bush
834 words • ~4 min
John F. Kennedy
747 words • ~4 min
John Quincy Adams
744 words • ~4 min
Jimmy Carter
660 words • ~3 min
Harry S. Truman
650 words • ~3 min
Dwight D. Eisenhower
581 words • ~3 min
Ronald Reagan
561 words • ~3 min
Andrew Jackson
535 words • ~3 min
Lyndon B. Johnson
525 words • ~3 min
Richard Nixon
525 words • ~3 min
George H. W. Bush
516 words • ~3 min
Zachary Taylor
453 words • ~2 min
Gerald Ford
445 words • ~2 min
James Buchanan
407 words • ~2 min
Franklin Pierce
375 words • ~2 min
Woodrow Wilson
370 words • ~2 min
John Tyler
369 words • ~2 min
Franklin D. Roosevelt
353 words • ~2 min
Warren G. Harding
337 words • ~2 min
Grover Cleveland
331 words • ~2 min
Chester A. Arthur
302 words • ~2 min
Herbert Hoover
280 words • ~1 min
Calvin Coolidge
275 words • ~1 min
Andrew Johnson
272 words • ~1 min
George Washington
249 words • ~1 min
Ulysses S. Grant
247 words • ~1 min
Martin Van Buren
211 words • ~1 min
Abraham Lincoln
204 words • ~1 min
William McKinley
203 words • ~1 min
Benjamin Harrison
198 words • ~1 min
William Howard Taft
183 words • ~1 min
Rutherford B. Hayes
179 words • ~1 min
Millard Fillmore
159 words • ~1 min
Theodore Roosevelt
122 words • ~1 min
James A. Garfield
64 words • ~1 min
Shortest Era: Lincoln & 19th Century (~200 words) Longest Era: 21st Century (~1,200 - 2,500+ words)

Executive Orders by Year

1789–2026 • orders signed per calendar year

1789 1908 2026

Want to explore a specific year? Visit the full interactive timeline.