Executive Order 14340 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Measures To End Cashless Bail and Enforce the Law in the District of Columbia
Signed: 2025-08-25 Published: 2025-08-28 Federal Register document: 2025-16615
Agencies: Executive Office of the President
Federal Register notes (as of 2026-10-19): See: EO 14252, March 27, 2025; EO 14333, August 11, 2025
What Executive Order 14340 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 165 (Thursday, August 28, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 165 (Thursday, August 28, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 42125-42126] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-16615] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90 , No. 165 / Thursday, August 28, 2025 / Presidential Documents [[Page 42125]] Executive Order 14340 of August 25, 2025 Measures To End Cashless Bail and Enforce the Law in the District of Columbia By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and Policy. As stated in Executive Order 14333 of August 11, 2025 (Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia), there is a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., that is impeding the operations and responsibilities of the Federal Government. The District of Columbia government's pretrial release policies, which include prohibiting cash bail, contribute to the disgraceful conditions referenced in the aforementioned Executive Order, as law enforcement must arrest the same individuals multiple times, and dangerous criminals are sometimes rapidly released. This leaves such criminals free to endanger American citizens visiting our Nation's capital, Federal workers discharging their duties to our...
Opening of the official text; read it in full in the Federal Register.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Minor constitutional concerns
Graded 2026-10-08
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
This SI grade finds Executive Order 14340 constitutionally grounded in federal District authority but requiring lawful execution. Congress has exclusive power over the District and the order stays within applicable law, targeting dangerous pretrial release during a declared crime emergency. It earns B because text avoids direct rights denial, while federal workaround detention and funding leverage need individualized judicial process to avoid Eighth Amendment and due process problems.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
For District of Columbia action, federal authority is at its maximum. Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 grants Congress exclusive legislation in all cases over the District. Congress delegated limited self-government through the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, Public Law 93-198, but retained emergency authority in Section 740. The President acting under Arti… -
✓ Passes · Bill of Rights
Order does not on its face abolish bail or mandate detention without judicial process. It directs federal officials to hold in federal custody and seek federal charges and pretrial detention to the fullest extent permissible under applicable law and consistent with applicable law. Under Eighth Amendment Excessive Bail Clause and Fifth Amendment Due Process, pretrial detention must remain individua… -
✓ Passes · Individual sovereignty
Liberty interest in pretrial freedom is protected by Fifth Amendment Due Process and Eighth Amendment, and burden is on government to justify detention by clear showing of danger or flight risk. Order states policy to ensure detention of suspects who threaten public safety for violent, sexual, and serious property offenses, which is a compelling justification tied to protection of life and propert… -
✓ Passes · Decentralization
Four-question test applied to District of Columbia context under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, which grants Congress exclusive legislation over the District. (1) Individual or family cannot handle violent crime, carjacking, rape, murder, burglary: false. (2) Local community or county alone cannot handle where order invokes crime emergency impeding federal operations: deemed false on stated reco… -
✓ Passes · Due process and takings
No property taken under Fifth Amendment Takings Clause and no explicit denial of notice or hearing. Procedural due process under Fifth Amendment requires fair notice, neutral magistrate, and individualized pretrial hearing before extended detention. Order preserves that by limiting federal holds and detention requests to what is permissible under applicable law. Risk is in execution: holding arres…
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