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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 10404 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10404—Resorting Certain Land Reserved for Military Purposes to the Territory of Hawaii and Transfering Title to Such Land and to Certain Other Lands to the Territory

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Wednesday, November 5, 1952
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3 min read (566 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (566 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The possession, use, and control of the following-described tract of land comprising a portion of the Fort Shafter Military Reservation, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, is hereby restored to the Territory of Hawaii, and title to such tract is hereby transferred to the said Territory: Beginning at the Northeast corner of this piece of land, and the South corner of Parcel 128, the same being also the South corner of Lot2-C, Map 2 of Land Court Application 748, and the initial point of Parcel 2 described in Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, and on the present North-west side of Middle Street, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from True South: 1. 48° 42´ 550.49 feet along the present Northwest side of Middle…

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Private Citizens & Property Owners

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 November 5, 1952, this order concerns Resorting Certain Land Reserved for Military Purposes to the Territory of Hawaii and Transfering Title to Such Land and to Certain Other Lands to the Territory. The possession, use, and control of the following-described tract of land comprising a portion of the Fort Shafter Military Reservation, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, is hereby restored to the Territory of Hawaii, and title to such tract is hereby transferred to the said Territory: Beginning at the Northeast corner of this piece of land, and the South corner of Parcel 128, the same being also the South…

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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The possession, use, and control of the following-described tract of land comprising a portion of the Fort Shafter Military Reservation, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, is hereby restored to the Territory of Hawaii, and title to such tract is hereby transferred to the said Territory: Beginning at the Northeast corner of this piece of land, and the South corner of Parcel 128, the same being also the South corner of Lot2-C, Map 2 of Land Court Application 748, and the initial point of Parcel 2 described in Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, and on the present North-west side of Middle Street, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from True South: 1. 48° 42´ 550.49 feet along the present Northwest side of Middle…

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Title to the three parcels of land described in Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, as Parcel 1, Parcel 2, and Parcel 4-B, respectively, is hereby transferred to the Territory of Hawaii.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
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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)
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"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
30 / 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

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
566
3,238 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
10
High School
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS certain land on the Island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, which forms a part of the public lands ceded and transferred to the United States by the Republic of Hawaii under the joint resolution of annexation of July 7, 1898, 30 Stat. 750, was reserved for military purposes as the Fort Shafter Military Reservation, as described by Executive Order No. 2521 of January 26, 1917; and WHEREAS certain parcels of the said land were restored to the Territory of Hawaii by Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, for use in the proposed extension of a certain public highway; and WHEREAS the realignment and widening of such public highway requires the restoration to the Territory of Hawaii of an additional parcel of such land, more particularly described hereinafter; and WHEREAS it is deemed desirable and in the public interest that the possession, use, and control of the said additional parcel be restored to the Territory of Hawaii, and that title thereto and to the three parcels of land described in the said Executive Order No. 5521 as Parcel 1, Parcel 2, and Parcel 4-B, respectively, be transferred to the said Territory:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 91 of the act of April 30, 1900, 31 Stat. 159, as amended by section 7 of the act of May 27, 1910, 36 Stat. 447, it is ordered as follows: 1. The possession, use, and control of the following-described tract of land comprising a portion of the Fort Shafter Military Reservation, Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, is hereby restored to the Territory of Hawaii, and title to such tract is hereby transferred to the said Territory: Beginning at the Northeast corner of this piece of land, and the South corner of Parcel 128, the same being also the South corner of Lot2-C, Map 2 of Land Court Application 748, and the initial point of Parcel 2 described in Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, and on the present North-west side of Middle Street, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from True South: 1. 48° 42´ 550.49 feet along the present Northwest side of Middle Street; along Parcel 2 of Executive Order NO. 5521; Thence along the seaward toe of the Weli Fish Pond wall (recently covered with dredged material) along land owned by the Territory of Hawaii, for the nest three (3) courses, the direct azimuths and distances between points on said seaward toe of Weli Fish Pond wall being: 2. 77° 20´ 24.53 feet; 3. 102° 40´ 50.00 feet; 4. 115° 40´ 50.00 feet; 5. Thence on a curve to the left with a radius of 578.38 feet, along the remainder of the effort Shafter Military Reservation, the chord azimuth an distance being: 241° 39´ 40" 259.45 feet; 6. 228° 42´ 362.00 feet along the remainder of the Fort Shafter Military Reservation; 7. 356° 15´ 33.99 feet along parcel 128, along Lot 2-C, Map 2 of Land Court Application 748; 8. 19° 15´ 26.56 feet along same, to the point of beginning and containing an AREA OF 26,162 SQUARE FEET or 0.061 ACRE. 2. Title to the three parcels of land described in Executive Order No. 5521 of December 26, 1930, as Parcel 1, Parcel 2, and Parcel 4-B, respectively, is hereby transferred to the Territory of Hawaii. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

November 5, 1952

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 10,404 (Nov. 5, 1952), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10404-resorting-certain-land-reserved-for-military-purposes-the-territory.