“Unitary Executive:” Code for Autocracy
Note: This article was originally published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on July 18, 2025 under the title John Doyle:;Unitary Executive’ is Code for Authority
Both Donald Trump and Patrick Morrisey have been hiding behind the term “unitary executive” to weaken our democracy. I think the term camouflage for dictatorship.
Because Trump’s autocratic exploits have been more obvious, Let’s focus on our governor’s overly adventurous use of his office.
First, Governor Morrisey unilaterally abolished civil service for thousands of state employees in state government, even though the civil service system was created years ago by act of the Legislature.
Courts, attention please.
Some argue this will make government more efficient, because people will work hard for fear of being fired if they don’t. This ignores history. Civil service has immensely improved government professionalism in the century plus we’ve had it nationally (seventy years in West Virginia).
Current employees may retain civil service status, if they don’t get promoted. Whenever they leave, they will be replaced by political hacks.
Second, Morrisey has effectively eliminated the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs. The Legislature created that office, and funded it through the end of Fiscal Year 2025, which ended June 30. The office is no longer funded, but the law that created it has not been repealed. Morrisey transferred the director of that office to another position, and says there is money left from FY 2025 to continue operations. But that “carryover” requires legislative action, which hasn’t happened.
Again, courts, attention please.
Third, Morrisey issued an executive order banning the State Board of Education from requiring children entering elementary school be vaccinated, despite the state law mandating such vaccinations. He then asked the Legislature to repeal the vaccine-mandate law. Did he know his order violated the law? His bill to make himself legal passed the State Senate 20-12, after extensive debate, but the House of Delegates overwhelmingly defeated it. He’s still trying to order the Board of Ed to drop its requirement for vaccinations!
Once again, courts, attention please.
The term “unitary executive,” which originated in right-wing thought about two score years ago, comes from the first sentence of Article 2 of the US Constitution. “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
According to the intellectual troglodytes inhabiting the Heritage Foundation and other philosophical caverns, this one sentence neuters Article 1, which created Congress to make the laws. Really?
Does the confusion stem from two interpretations of the word “executive?” Article 2 charges the President with the responsibility to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” As those laws would have been according to Article 1 enacted by Congress, it seems clear that the president’s job is to carry out the wishes of Congress. “Execute” means to “implement.”
But to many in business “executive” means “decision-maker.” In corporate lingo, the “Chief Executive Officer (CEO)” is the policymaker for the company. The person assigned to carry out that policy is often called the “Chief Operating Officer (COO).”
By that logic, the so-called “laws” passed by Congress are merely advisory in nature. Perhaps the Executive Unitarians (apologies to that noble religious faith) believe that had the framers of our Constitution actually intended for the President to implement the wishes of Congress, they would have said “operating power.” Will they argue this in court?
Some advocates of the unitary executive theory claim to be “originalists.” “Originalism” holds that when interpreting the constitution, the words written by the framers must be held to their original intent. They cannot be adapted to changing circumstances.
I believe the original intent was to accommodate adaptation, but within the words as written. I think its clear that the framers wanted the president to always adhere to the decisions of Congress.
I suspect that at least some of the people advocating a “unitary executive” realize it’s code language for “autocracy.” Everybody else, please be alert.
The president can issue executive orders, which have the force of law, but only in the absence of action by Congress. West Virginia state government is based on the federal model, as each state is guaranteed by the Constitution a “republican” form of government. Patrick Morrisey and Donald Trump are “executives” in the constitutional, not the corporate, sense. The courts should tell them so.
