Executive Order 14303 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Restoring Gold Standard Science
Signed: 2025-05-23 Published: 2025-05-29 Federal Register document: 2025-09802
Agencies: Executive Office of the President
Federal Register notes (as of 2026-10-19): See: EO 14154, January 20, 2025; Memo. of January 27, 2021
What Executive Order 14303 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 102 (Thursday, May 29, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 102 (Thursday, May 29, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 22601-22606] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-09802] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 102 / Thursday, May 29, 2025 / Presidential Documents [[Page 22601]] Executive Order 14303 of May 23, 2025 Restoring Gold Standard Science By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Policy and Purpose. Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly. A majority of researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics believe science is facing a reproducibility crisis. The falsification of data by leading researchers has led to high-profile retractions of federally funded research. Unfortunately, the Federal Government has contributed to this loss of trust. In several notable cases, executive departments and agencies (agencies) have used or promoted scientific information in a highly misleading manner. For example, under the prior Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued COVID-19 guidance on...
Opening of the official text; read it in full in the Federal Register.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Constitutionally sound
Graded 2026-10-08
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
Executive Order 14303 is internal executive-branch management requiring Gold Standard Science - reproducible, transparent, uncertainty-disclosing research - for federal decisions. Grounded in Article II executive authority, it restricts no rights, takes no property, denies no hearing, and adds no federal power over states or individuals. SI review finds it fully constitutional.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
Executive action governs internal operations of executive departments, not a new federal regulatory power over citizens. Authority rests in Article II, Sections 1 and 3 vesting executive power and requiring faithful execution of laws, plus 5 U.S.C. 7301 direction of federal employees. No reliance on stretched Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 commerce power. It restores prior scientific integrity pol… -
✓ Passes · Bill of Rights
Order directs federal agencies to use reproducible, transparent, peer-reviewed science and disclose uncertainty. It imposes no restriction on speech, religion, press, assembly, petition under First Amendment, no disarmament under Second Amendment, no searches under Fourth Amendment, and no compelled testimony. It regulates internal executive-branch scientific integrity only. -
✓ Passes · Individual sovereignty
No person is compelled or prohibited from speaking, publishing, researching, working, or believing. Scientists outside government retain full freedom; federally funded research is subject only to transparency and rigor conditions tied to voluntary funding. Burden of justification met because government may set quality standards for its own decisions and expenditures without restricting private per… -
✓ Passes · Decentralization
Test applied to internal management of federal scientific activity: (1) individuals cannot set government-wide scientific integrity rules, (2) counties cannot manage federal agencies, (3) states cannot direct federal executive agencies, (4) order does not consolidate new power over states or localities or individuals, it only disciplines existing federal operations under Article II. No Tenth Amend… -
✓ Passes · Due process and takings
Order creates no adjudication, no deprivation of life, liberty, or property, and no seizure. No fines, licenses revoked, or property taken under Fifth Amendment Takings Clause. Procedural due process under Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment not triggered; substantive due process not implicated because action is non-arbitrary procedural guidance for integrity.
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