Governor Youngkin Blocks a Mine by Executive Order, Bypassing the Legislature He Couldn't Persuade

ST. PAUL — Governor Youngkin signed an executive order this week barring a proposed copper-and-nickel mine near a beloved stretch of wilderness, instructing state agencies to simply decline to participate in any process that might permit it.

The order accomplishes by signature what Governor Youngkin could not accomplish by legislation, a distinction his supporters described as decisive leadership and his opponents described as a governor writing law with a pen because the lawmaking branch would not write it for him.

Lawyers on all sides agreed the order bears a strong risk of litigation, which is the customary fate of policy enacted around the legislature rather than through it, and which both parties discover is intolerable at the exact moment the other party does it.

The Press's executive-action desk observes that ruling by executive order is either the courage to act or the arrogance to skip the vote, depending solely on whether the pen belongs to your party, and that the identical signature is always tyranny when the ink is the other color.

Across town, opponents held a press conference at a geological marker to denounce the order, a venue the Press commends for its commitment to bedrock principle.

At press time the excavator stood frozen mid-dig beneath a very large DENIED stamp, awaiting either a court ruling or a change in which party finds the pen mightier than the quorum.