Legal Studies
Executive Orders
In Spring 2025, President Trump signed numerous Executive Orders (EOs) that affect higher education. Given campus interest in this topic, I'm creating portal to how you can research them.
Generally:
- For breaking news, go to the WhiteHouse: Presidential Actions
- For legal research, go to the Federal Register website or use GovInfo (Federal Register and later in the e-CFR Title 3)
- For historical research, go to the National Archives (NARA)
For analysis and breaking news (secondary sources), check our newspaper databases. See, for instance, The Chronicle of Higher Education's Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Agenda. They break down impacts into the following categories: Civil Rights, Immigration, Policy and Research. The New York Times has an education page; it also has a Lawsuits Tracker. The library has campuswide access to both The Chronicle as well as NYTimes.com.
For governmental alerts, read the following:
- U.S. Department of Education: Press Releases
- U.S. Department of Justice: Press Releases
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS (FREE ONLINE)
- The White House: Presidential ActionsFrom the "Presidential Actions" page there is a tab for Executive Orders. This is a place to go for breaking news and quick access.
- GovInfoTry the Advanced Search: set a date range (after January 20th) and check the collection: Compilation of Presidential documents. You can put a key word in the Search In field (Example: Title IX). In the left menu under Category, select Executive Orders.
- Executive Orders (FederalRegister.gov)Listing of Presidential Executive orders since 1937. Scroll down to the Disposition Table and click on 2025. Try CTRL-F for your keyword.
- Federal Register (GovInfo)You can browse the Federal Register or use the GovInfo Advance Search > Date: After 1/20/25> Collection: Federal Register and then search across it (ex. "title ix" and "executive order")
- Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)In the e-CFR, The President is compiled in Title 3. There appears to be a lag before EOs are compiled here after first being published in the Federal Register.
- National Archives: Office of the Federal Register: Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive OrdersYou can look up historical EOs (begins with EO 7532, January 8, 1937 - January 19, 2017) alphabetically, by chapter index, or numeric index (see left menu). NARA points to the FederalRegister.gov for EO 12944 - present. Use NARA for historical research rather than legal practice.
- CIS index to presidential executive orders & proclamations.(HathiTrust)Historical research. HathiTrust/Google digitized this index that spans from 1789 to 1980. The index goes to microfilm that we could borrow (OCLC 16418600).
- Executive Orders: A Beginner’s GuideA guide to Executive Orders from the Library of Congress. This guide is more comprehensive than this page (print resources, additional databases and compilations).
NEXIS UNI (LIBRARY DATABASE)
- Public Papers of the President1981-current. From the Office of the Federal Register. Updated within 3 days of publication. Hit continue. Use the search box in the left menu to search within this source.
- Federal Register (Nexis Uni)March 14, 1936 to current. The Federal Register (FR) is the official vehicle for making the regulations and legal notices issued by the federal agencies and departments available to the public. It includes Presidential proclamations and executive orders. To find EOs search "executive order" along with your keyword.
- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (Nexis Uni)Title 3 The President > Executive Orders. I find them easier to browse than search.
RSS Feed to Executive Orders (current 20 displayed)
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