"The power of the executive branch, for instance, has expanded far beyond.."

"The power of the executive branch, for instance, has expanded far beyond what the Framers of the Constitution envisioned.  One mechanism that has strengthened it is the executive order, an instrument by which presidents have exerted powers that our Constitution never intended them to have.  An executive order is a command issued by the president that enjoys his authority alone, not having been passed by Congress.  Executive orders can have legitimate functions.  Presidents can carry out their constitutional duties or direct their subordinates by executive order, for instance.  But they can also be a source of temptation for ambitious presidents, since they can always try to get away with using them as a substitute for formal legislation that they know they cannot get to pass.  He can thereby circumvent the normal, constitutional legislative process. 

Executive orders were rare in the nineteenth century; for a president to issue even several dozen was unusual.  The first twentieth-century president to serve a full term, Theodore Roosevelt (who served two, in fact), issued over three thousand. 

This is a travesty against our constitutional system, and any president worthy of the office would absolutely forswear the use of executive orders except when he can show express constitutional or statutory authority for his action."  -Pages 41-43 of The Revolution, A Manifesto