As the nation shudders under a polar vortex, it is perhaps fitting that the U.S. courts and president are squaring-off in a freeze-out match.

President Trump has moved swiftly, using executive orders to freeze federal programs, agencies and workers in preparation for their evisceration, while the lower courts countered by freezing the implementation of many of the president’s actions pending full judicial processes.

Executive orders date back to our first president, George Washington. On June 8, 1789, Washington sent a request for information to his department heads asking what exactly it was that they did — their jurisdictions, responsibilities and plans.

It was the most direct way for the first chief executive of the newly established government to get a handle on his own responsibilities in guiding, directing and overseeing what would one day become a sprawling bureaucracy. Washington only had four Cabinet departments under him: State, Treasury, War and Justice. Today there are 15 departments, with more than 3 million employees.

Not all presidential orders have been as benign as Washington’s. President Abraham Lincoln got into hot water by

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