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Executive Order 10160 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10160—Providing for the Preservation of Records for Certain Purposes of the Defense Production Act of 1950

Harry S Truman Harry S Truman
•
Saturday, September 9, 1950
•
2 min read (407 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (407 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Every person who sold or delivered goods or services, or offered them for sale or delivery, in the course of trade or business during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, inclusive, shall preserve all his records for such period relating to: (a) The prices received or asked for such goods or services; and (b) The labor, material, acquisition, and other costs incurred in connection with such goods or services. 2.

View all 2 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Private Citizens & Property Owners
Inspect unabridged text ↓

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Harry S Truman on September 9, 1950, this order concerns Providing for the Preservation of Records for Certain Purposes of the Defense Production Act of 1950. Every person who sold or delivered goods or services, or offered them for sale or delivery, in the course of trade or business during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, inclusive, shall preserve all his records for such period relating to: (a) The prices received or asked for such goods or services; and (b) The labor, material, acquisition, and other costs incurred in connection with such goods or…

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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Every person who sold or delivered goods or services, or offered them for sale or delivery, in the course of trade or business during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, inclusive, shall preserve all his records for such period relating to: (a) The prices received or asked for such goods or services; and (b) The labor, material, acquisition, and other costs incurred in connection with such goods or services. 2.

▪

This order does not apply to: (a) Records of an individual relating to wages or salary received by such individual; (b) Records relating to sales of agricultural commodities by the individual producer thereof; and (c) Records relating to the following, which are exempt from control under section 402(e) of the Defense Production Act of 1950: (i) prices or rentals for real property; (ii) rates or fees charged for professional services; (iii) prices or rentals for (a) materials furnished for publication by an press association or feature service, or (b) books, magazines, motion pictures, periodicals, or newspapers, other than as waste or scrap; or rates charged by any person in the business of operating or publishing a newspaper, periodical…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment
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The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
§

"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
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Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
34 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

Moderate Friction

Engages state and local partners in cooperative federalism programs.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
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How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
407
2,552 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
28
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Defense Production Act of 1950, and as President of the United States, and in order to provide an appropriate basis for action under Title IV of the Defense Production Act of 1950, it is hereby ordered: 1. Every person who sold or delivered goods or services, or offered them for sale or delivery, in the course of trade or business during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, inclusive, shall preserve all his records for such period relating to: (a) The prices received or asked for such goods or services; and (b) The labor, material, acquisition, and other costs incurred in connection with such goods or services. 2. This order does not apply to: (a) Records of an individual relating to wages or salary received by such individual; (b) Records relating to sales of agricultural commodities by the individual producer thereof; and (c) Records relating to the following, which are exempt from control under section 402(e) of the Defense Production Act of 1950: (i) prices or rentals for real property; (ii) rates or fees charged for professional services; (iii) prices or rentals for (a) materials furnished for publication by an press association or feature service, or (b) books, magazines, motion pictures, periodicals, or newspapers, other than as waste or scrap; or rates charged by any person in the business of operating or publishing a newspaper, periodical, or magazine, or operating a radio-broadcasting or television station, a motion-picture or other theater enterprise, or outdoor advertising facilities; (iv) rates charged by any person in the business of selling or underwriting insurance; (v) rates charged by any common carrier or other public utility; and (vi) margin requirements on any commodity exchange. 3. For the purposes of this order: (1) The term "person" includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association, or any other organized group of persons, or legal successor or representative of the foregoing, and includes the United States or any agency thereof, or any other government, or any of its political subdivisions, or any agency of any of the foregoing. (b) The term "prices" includes rentals, commissions, margins, rates, fees, charges, and allowances paid or received. (c) The term "goods" has the same meaning as the term "materials" in the Defense Production Act of 1950 and includes raw materials, articles, commodities, products, supplies, components, technical information, and processes. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

September 9, 1950

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

References Executive Order 10662—Amendment of Executive Order No. 10480 and Revocation of Executive Order No. 10160, Relating to the Administration of the Defense Production Act of 1950
Dwight D. Eisenhower • 1956-03-13
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,160 (Sept. 9, 1950), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10160-providing-for-the-preservation-records-for-certain-purposes-the.