Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks

Enumerated powers · passes

For executive action, authority must trace to the Constitution and to a valid statute. Article II, Section 1 vests executive power and Article II, Section 3 requires faithful execution of the laws. The underlying federal power over parks rests on Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2, the Property Clause, which grants Congress power to dispose of and make needful rules respecting federal property, exercised through the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act and the Great American Outdoors Act, Public Law 116-152. The order directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop fee strategy, review rules, and implement the Legacy Restoration Fund, all consistent with applicable law. It creates no new tax or independent regulatory regime.

Bill of Rights · passes

No provision of the first ten Amendments is infringed. The order imposes no restriction on speech, religion, assembly, press or petition under the First Amendment, no disarmament under the Second Amendment, no search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and no criminal process issue under the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh or Eighth Amendments. Differential park entrance fees for nonresidents do not burden a fundamental right, and any classification involving nonresident visitors is subject to deferential review and is supported here by revenue and maintenance purposes. No Ninth or Tenth Amendment reserved right is abridged.

Individual liberty · passes

No restriction is placed on what a person may do with their person, property, speech, labor, or belief. United States residents are expressly favored with improved services, affordability, and preferential permitting or lottery treatment where lawful, while nonresident visitors remain invited under Section 2(d) and pay a higher voluntary fee only if they choose to enter fee-charging parks. The burden on liberty is minimal and justified by preserving access and funding maintenance of shared federal lands.

Decentralization · passes

The action concerns the National Park System, which is existing federal property under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2. An individual, family, county, or single state cannot manage Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, or other interstate federal parks, collect system-wide entrance fees, or address the National Park Service maintenance backlog. The order does not move a state or local function to Washington; it directs management of property already held at the federal level, with Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture acting within their statutory stewardship roles. No Tenth Amendment violation.

Due process and takings · passes

No person is deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process under the Fifth Amendment, and no taking occurs. Park entrance fees and recreation passes are voluntary user fees for access to federal recreational lands, authorized in concept by 16 U.S.C. 6801 and 16 U.S.C. 6807, not a compelled seizure or physical appropriation. The order expressly requires implementation consistent with applicable law and subject to appropriations, preserving statutory notice, rulemaking, and hearing protections, creates no enforceable benefit, and directs increased revenue to infrastructure under 16 U.S.C. 6807.