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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 10288 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10288—Further Amending Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government to Acquire a Competitive Status

Harry S Truman Harry S Truman
•
Friday, September 7, 1951
•
2 min read (365 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (365 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, entitled "Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government To Acquire a Competitive Status", as amended by Executive Order No. 10217 of February 26, 1951," is hereby further amended as follows: 1.

View all 3 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 Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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 7, 1951, this order concerns Further Amending Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government to Acquire a Competitive Status. Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, entitled "Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government To Acquire a Competitive Status", as amended by Executive Order No. 10217 of February 26, 1951," is hereby further amended as follows: 1.

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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Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, entitled "Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government To Acquire a Competitive Status", as amended by Executive Order No. 10217 of February 26, 1951," is hereby further amended as follows: 1.

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Paragraph 1(a) is amended to read as follows: "(a) The employee shall have served continuously in a full-time, active-duty status in the competitive service, without a break in service of more than sixty calendar days, during the two years immediately prior to the date of this order: Provided, that military service shall not be regarded as a break in service: Provided further, that substitute employees in the postal service who were appointed on or before August 28, 1948, and who performed service during the required two-year period in positions within the authorized quota of substitutes at the post office concerned shall be considered as having served continuously in a full-time, active-duty status for purposes of this order." 2.

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Paragraph 1(c) is amended to read as follows: "(c) The acquisition of competitive status by the employee must be recommended to the Civil Service Commission by the head of the agency in which he is employed within six months of the date of this order: Provided, that in the case of an employee who has left , or before the expiration of such six-months' period leaves, his civilian position for the purpose of entering the armed forces of the United States, such recommendation must be made within six months of the date of honorable termination of the military service of the employee: Provided further, that in the cases of the substitute employees in the postal service specified in the last proviso of paragraph 1(a), above, and in cases where…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ National Security & Defense 🏷️ Government Operations & Civil Service
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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
43 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

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

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

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

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

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
365
2,196 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
24.7
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 section 2 of the Civil Service Act (22 Stat.404) and by section 1753 of the Revised Statues of the United States, Executive Order No. 10157 of August 28, 1950, entitled "Enabling Certain Employees of the Federal Government To Acquire a Competitive Status", as amended by Executive Order No. 10217 of February 26, 1951," is hereby further amended as follows: 1. Paragraph 1(a) is amended to read as follows: "(a) The employee shall have served continuously in a full-time, active-duty status in the competitive service, without a break in service of more than sixty calendar days, during the two years immediately prior to the date of this order: Provided, that military service shall not be regarded as a break in service: Provided further, that substitute employees in the postal service who were appointed on or before August 28, 1948, and who performed service during the required two-year period in positions within the authorized quota of substitutes at the post office concerned shall be considered as having served continuously in a full-time, active-duty status for purposes of this order." 2. Paragraph 1(c) is amended to read as follows: "(c) The acquisition of competitive status by the employee must be recommended to the Civil Service Commission by the head of the agency in which he is employed within six months of the date of this order: Provided, that in the case of an employee who has left , or before the expiration of such six-months' period leaves, his civilian position for the purpose of entering the armed forces of the United States, such recommendation must be made within six months of the date of honorable termination of the military service of the employee: Provided further, that in the cases of the substitute employees in the postal service specified in the last proviso of paragraph 1(a), above, and in cases where, due to an inadvertence on the part of an agency, recommendation was not submitted to the Civil Service Commission within the prescribed six-months' period, such recommendation may be accepted if received by the Commission not later than March 1, 1952. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

September 7, 1951

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,288 (Sept. 7, 1951), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10288-further-amending-executive-order-no-10157-august-28-1950-enabling.