Public administration is inherently the execution of a public law. Every application of a general law is necessarily an act of administration. Administration cannot exist without this legal foundation. In the United States, the Constitution of 1787 as amended is the law of the land. All legislation must conform to it or at the very least not violate it in a manner obvious to the US Supreme Court. The law that creates an agency or program is known as its enabling legislation—the law that legally “enables” a program to exist. In theory, no government administrator can do anything if it is not provided for in the legislation or in the rules and regulations that the legislation allows the agency to promulgate.