Renee Parsons

Just prior to another unconstitutional murder of a US citizen in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order No. 14199 entitled “Withdrawing the United States from International  Organizations, Conventions or Treaties that are Contrary to the Interests of the United States.”

In another attempt to avoid Congressional Action which would probably question why or object to why this ban was initiated, the President ordered the Secretary of State and the US Representative to the UN to conduct a review of all international intergovernmental organizations of which the US is a member and provides funding or other support.  That order also included examination of all conventions and treaties to which the US is a party in order to determine which organizations are “contrary to the interests of the United States.”   

The Secretary of State reported his findings to the President and after ‘deliberating with my Cabinet’ (all of which are predominately bobbing heads) the President determined “it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support “ thus “pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,” the President ordered all Federal government executive departments and agencies to effect withdrawal of the United States from the list of sixty six organizations asap.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America” for a term of four years.  With no other specific details of when that executive power may be invoked; under the assumption that any President of the United States would be mindful of its Constitutional responsibilities and requirements to include the American public in those ‘executive decisions’.   

In formulating EO 14199, there is no information regarding how the Secretary of State conducted the review ‘of all international intergovernmental organizations of which the US is a member” including no definition identifying specifically what characteristics were determined to be “contrary to the interests of the United States’.   

The EO provided no details including how that list had been prioritized, what criteria was used to make that determination, including how was the decision made to eliminate the US from sixty six assorted international organizations, some of which were UN affiliated organizations, with no explanation of how each organization failed to meet the “contrary to the interests of the United States” test;

In other words, there was no public process or involvement at any level for the American public to voice its agreement or objection to what appears to have been an arbitrary selection for the removal of Sixty Six international organizations declared to be ‘contrary to the interests of the United States.”

In addition, the EO included the assurance that “further findings of the Secretary of State remains ongoing.”

Renee Parsons has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and a staff member in the US House of Representative in Washington, DC. Before its demise, she was also a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter.