Proclamations and Memoranda

Presidents have issued proclamations since George Washington declared a national day of thanksgiving on October 3, 1789, and his Neutrality Proclamation of April 22, 1793, kept the United States out of the war between Britain and France. Proclamations are formal announcements addressed to the public. Many are ceremonial, marking holidays and commemorations, but others carry legal effect when a statute or the Constitution authorizes the President to act, as with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.

Today proclamations are used to impose tariffs under trade laws, restrict entry of foreign nationals, declare national emergencies, and establish national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Presidential memoranda are directives to agency heads, often on narrower matters, such as instructing an agency to begin a rulemaking or review a policy. Under the Federal Register Act of 1935, proclamations and executive orders of general applicability must be published in the Federal Register, while memoranda are published only when the President decides they have general effect, though most now are.

The legal force of any directive depends on the authority behind it, not its label, and courts review proclamations and memoranda as they do executive orders. In 2025 the President used proclamations to impose broad tariffs and, on March 15, invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged gang members, a use the Supreme Court said required notice and a chance to challenge removal. An appeals court panel ruled the invocation unlawful in September 2025, but the full Fifth Circuit vacated that decision and in August 2026 dismissed the case as moot, leaving the legal question unresolved. Supporters say these tools let presidents act quickly within powers Congress has granted, while critics say presidents increasingly stretch old statutes to make major policy without Congress.