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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 10603 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.33) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10603—Amendment of Executive Order No. 10309, Providing for the Restoration of Possession, Use, and Control of Certain Lands Reserved for Military Purposes to the Territory of Hawaii and Transfer of Title to Such Lands to the Territory

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Tuesday, April 19, 1955
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3 min read (653 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (653 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The description of Tract No. 1 contained in the said Executive Order No. 10309 of December 3, 1951, be, and it is hereby, amended to read as follows: TRACT No. 1 Beginning at a lead plug at the west corner of this piece of land, on the southeasterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street, the coordinates of the said point of beginning referred to Government Survey Triangulation Station "Punchbowl" being 4412.22 feet south and 5678.39 feet west, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from true south: 1. 219° 00' 00" 154.09 feet along the south-easterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street; thence along such area on a curve to the right with a radius of 20.00 feet, the chord azimuth and distance being; 2. 264°…

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Public Health & Medical Institutions

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

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

Signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 19, 1955, this order concerns Amendment of Executive Order No. 10309, Providing for the Restoration of Possession, Use, and Control of Certain Lands Reserved for Military Purposes to the Territory of Hawaii and Transfer of Title to Such Lands to the Territory. The description of Tract No. 1 contained in the said Executive Order No. 10309 of December 3, 1951, be, and it is hereby, amended to read as follows: TRACT No. 1 Beginning at a lead plug at the west corner of this piece of land, on the southeasterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street, the coordinates of the said point of beginning referred to Government Survey Triangulation Station "Punchbowl" being…

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 description of Tract No. 1 contained in the said Executive Order No. 10309 of December 3, 1951, be, and it is hereby, amended to read as follows: TRACT No. 1 Beginning at a lead plug at the west corner of this piece of land, on the southeasterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street, the coordinates of the said point of beginning referred to Government Survey Triangulation Station "Punchbowl" being 4412.22 feet south and 5678.39 feet west, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from true south: 1. 219° 00' 00" 154.09 feet along the south-easterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street; thence along such area on a curve to the right with a radius of 20.00 feet, the chord azimuth and distance being; 2. 264°…

▪

The provisions of Parts I and II of Executive Order No. 10309, including those relating to certificates of acceptance of work by the Department of the Army, shall be applicable to the said 0.16 acre of Tract No. 1 in the same manner and to the same extent as they would have been if the said land had not been excluded from the application thereof.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions
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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 1 (Maximum Authority)
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"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
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.

🛡️ High Constitutional Concordance
23 / 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

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates in close harmony with statutory authority and standard Article II supervisory execution.

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
653
3,626 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
8.2
Grade 8
Language Tone Score
+0.33
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS by Executive Order No. 10309 of December 3, 1951, the President of the United States directed that possession, use, and control of certain lands reserved for military purposes be restored to the Territory of Hawaii and that title to such lands be transferred to the Territory, subject to the conditions contained in such order; and WHEREAS the description of course 6 of Tract No. 1 described in the said Executive order is erroneous; and WHEREAS there was excepted and excluded from the application of the said Executive Order No. 10309 a portion of the said Tract No. 1, containing 6,920 square feet or 0.16 acre, because such land had been transferred to the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of War (now Secretary of the Army) by letter of the Secretary of Labor (Immigration Service) dated December 16, 1939, pursuant to the act of Congress approved August 5, 1939, 53 Stat. 1209; and WHEREAS the act of July 27, 1954, 68 Stat. 567 (Public Law 539, 83d Congress), provides, in part, that notwithstanding the said act of August 5, 1939, the President may exercise with respect to the said 0.16 acre of land transferred to the Secretary of War by letter of the Secretary of Labor dated December 16, 1939, all those powers which are conferred upon the President by the second sentence of section 91 of the Hawaiian Organic Act as amended (48 U.S.C. 511) with respect to other ceded property taken for the uses and purposes of the United States; and WHEREAS it is deemed desirable and in the public interest that the said error in description be corrected, and that the provisions of Executive Order No. 10309 be made applicable to the said 0.16 acre of land:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said act of July 27, 1954, and by section 91 of the said Hawaiian Organic Act as amended by section 7 of the act of May 27, 1910, it is ordered that the description of Tract No. 1 contained in the said Executive Order No. 10309 of December 3, 1951, be, and it is hereby, amended to read as follows: TRACT No. 1 Beginning at a lead plug at the west corner of this piece of land, on the southeasterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street, the coordinates of the said point of beginning referred to Government Survey Triangulation Station "Punchbowl" being 4412.22 feet south and 5678.39 feet west, thence running by azimuths measured clockwise from true south: 1. 219° 00' 00" 154.09 feet along the south-easterly side of the area formerly known as Channel Street; thence along such area on a curve to the right with a radius of 20.00 feet, the chord azimuth and distance being; 2. 264° 00' 00" 28.28 feet; 3. 309° 00' 00" 172.18 feet along the same and along land formerly a portion of U. S. Immigration Station lot (Executive Order No. 10419 of December 11, 1952); 4. 38° 48' 30" 270.88 feet along the remainder of Tract No. 1 of Fort Armstrong Military Reservation; 5. 128° 48' 30" 25.98 feet along a portion of the U. S. Public Health Station lot (item 1 (a), act of July 27, 1954. 88 Stat. 567); 6. 218° 57' 20" 96.70 feet along the same; 7. 129° 03' 00" 167.01 feet along the same to the point of beginning; and containing an area of 35,932 square feet or 0.82 acre. The provisions of Parts I and II of Executive Order No. 10309, including those relating to certificates of acceptance of work by the Department of the Army, shall be applicable to the said 0.16 acre of Tract No. 1 in the same manner and to the same extent as they would have been if the said land had not been excluded from the application thereof. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

April 19, 1955.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 10,603 (Apr. 19, 1955), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10603-amendment-executive-order-no-10309-providing-for-the-restoration.