★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 10755 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10755—Transferring From the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Financing Agency, Subject to Reservation of Mineral Rights, Certain Land Located Withing Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2

•
Saturday, February 22, 1958
•
3 min read (651 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (651 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The following-described tract of land be, and it is, hereby, excluded from Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 and transferred, subject to the continuation until termination of all valid existing permits, easements, rights-of-way, and other rights heretofore granted and administered by the Secretary of the Navy, from the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Finance Agency for defense-housing purposes: Provided, that this exclusion and transfer shall not include the oil and gas and other mineral rights in and to such land, but that all deposits of oil and gas and other minerals therein shall be retained in, and remain a part of, the said Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2, for the exclusive use and benefit of the United States Navy: That…

⚖️ 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 Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 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 Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 22, 1958, this order concerns Transferring From the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Financing Agency, Subject to Reservation of Mineral Rights, Certain Land Located Withing Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2. The following-described tract of land be, and it is, hereby, excluded from Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 and transferred, subject to the continuation until termination of all valid existing permits, easements, rights-of-way, and other rights heretofore granted and administered by the Secretary of the Navy, from the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Finance Agency for defense-housing purposes: Provided…

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

▪

The following-described tract of land be, and it is, hereby, excluded from Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 and transferred, subject to the continuation until termination of all valid existing permits, easements, rights-of-way, and other rights heretofore granted and administered by the Secretary of the Navy, from the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Finance Agency for defense-housing purposes: Provided, that this exclusion and transfer shall not include the oil and gas and other mineral rights in and to such land, but that all deposits of oil and gas and other minerals therein shall be retained in, and remain a part of, the said Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2, for the exclusive use and benefit of the United States Navy: That…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
🏛️

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
📐

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
47 / 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

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%).
ℹ️
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
651
3,724 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
15.2
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

CALIFORNIA WHEREAS, by Executive order of December 13, 1912, certain public lands in the State of California were withdrawn under the general withdrawal act of June 25, 1910, 36 Stat. 847 (43 U.S.C. 141-143), and reserved for the exclusive use and benefit of the United States Navy and designated as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2; and WHEREAS the Secretary of the Navy made certain lands within the said reserve available to the Federal Works Agency in 1941 for use as a site for a defense-housing project; and WHEREAS the housing project constructed thereon has since been acquired by the Housing and Home Finance Agency; and WHEREAS the Housing and Home Finance Agency has determined that the housing is no longer needed for public purposes, and that it cannot be disposed of advantageously unless sold in place, together with the surface rights to the tract of land on which the housing is situated; and WHEREAS the Housing and Home Finance Agency has requested the Department of the Navy to transfer to it the surface rights to the said tract of land in order to facilitate the public sale of the housing project; and WHEREAS, after full consideration, the Navy has determined that the requested transfer of the surface rights to such tract would not be inconsistent with the planned use of the said reserve, inasmuch as the rights to the oil and gas underlying such tract would remain under the exclusive jurisdiction and control of the Secretary of the Navy, and any oil and gas located therein could be removed by directional drilling from surrounding Navy-controlled areas; and WHEREAS the Armed Services Committees of the Congress have been consulted regarding the effect of the proposed transfer on the operation of the Naval Petroleum Reserves, and have expressed no objection thereto; and WHEREAS it appears that the requested transfer would be in the public interest:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said act of June 25, 1910, and as President of the United States, it is ordered that the following-described tract of land be, and it is, hereby, excluded from Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 and transferred, subject to the continuation until termination of all valid existing permits, easements, rights-of-way, and other rights heretofore granted and administered by the Secretary of the Navy, from the Department of the Navy to the Housing and Home Finance Agency for defense-housing purposes: Provided, that this exclusion and transfer shall not include the oil and gas and other mineral rights in and to such land, but that all deposits of oil and gas and other minerals therein shall be retained in, and remain a part of, the said Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2, for the exclusive use and benefit of the United States Navy: That portion of the NE 1/4 SE 1/4 sec. 12, T. 82 13., R. 23 E., M. D. B. & M., in the County of Kern, State of California, described more specifically as follows: Beginning at a point, which is a United States Land Office corner brass cap and a 2-inch iron pipe marking the SE corner of the NE 1/4 SE 1/4 sec. 12, as shown on Record of Survey Map recorded in Book 5, Page 61, of Record of Survey Maps in the office of the Kern County Recorder; Thence S. 89°21'30" W., a distance of 1321.24 ft., to a point on the south line of the NE 1/4 SE 1/4 sec. 12; Thence N. 0°14'50" W., a distance of 552.12 ft.; Thence N. 89°21'30" E., a distance of 1321.86 ft., to a point on the east line of sec. 12; Thence S. 0°11'0" E., along said east line of sec. 12, a distance of 662.12 ft., to the point of beginning; containing 18.75 acres. The said Executive order of December 13, 1912, is modified accordingly. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

February 22, 1958.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 10,755 (Feb. 22, 1958), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10755-transferring-from-the-department-the-navy-the-housing-and-home.