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Executive Order 10761 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 10761—Government Purchases of Crude Petroleum and Petroleum Products

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Thursday, March 27, 1958
•
3 min read (557 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (557 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Every contract entered into by any executive department or agency for the purchase in the United States of imported crude petroleum or petroleum products refined in the United States and derived in whole or in part from imported crude petroleum shall contain the following provision: "The contractor agrees that during the contract period he will comply in all respects with the Voluntary Oil Import Program." SEC. 4.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Foreign Nations & International Entities

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 March 27, 1958, this order concerns Government Purchases of Crude Petroleum and Petroleum Products. For the purposes of the application of the act of March 3, 1933, 47 Stat. 1520, 41 U.S.C. 10a-10c; 63 Stat. 1024, 41 U.S.C. 10d, commonly known as the Buy American Act, pursuant to this order: "domestic petroleum product" means crude petroleum of wholly domestic origin and any product refined in the United States entirely from such crude petroleum; "non-domestic petroleum product" means crude petroleum not wholly…

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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Every contract entered into by any executive department or agency for the purchase in the United States of imported crude petroleum or petroleum products refined in the United States and derived in whole or in part from imported crude petroleum shall contain the following provision: "The contractor agrees that during the contract period he will comply in all respects with the Voluntary Oil Import Program." SEC. 4.

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The Administrator, Voluntary Oil Import Program, is authorized to issue certificates of compliance with the Voluntary Oil Import Program which may be accepted as conclusive evidence of such compliance.

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Executive Order No. 10582 of December 17, 1954, "Prescribing Uniform Procedures for Certain Determinations under the Buy American Act," shall not be applicable to crude petroleum and petroleum products.

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This order shall be applicable to contracts entered into thirty days after the date hereof.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities
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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

"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)

Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.

Hamiltonian Stance: Defends Vigor & Dispatch
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
557
3,459 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
20.9
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS, following the receipt of advice from the Special Committee to Investigate Crude Oil Imports, I have determined that essential national security interests are adversely affected by the purchase by the United States of crude petroleum imported in quantities in excess of those now or hereafter specified under the Voluntary Oil Import Program or of petroleum products refined in the United States and composed of or derived from such crude petroleum, in whole or in part; and WHEREAS I have determined that such purchases would not be in the public interest:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: SECTION 1. For the purposes of the application of the act of March 3, 1933, 47 Stat. 1520, 41 U.S.C. 10a-10c; 63 Stat. 1024, 41 U.S.C. 10d, commonly known as the Buy American Act, pursuant to this order: "domestic petroleum product" means crude petroleum of wholly domestic origin and any product refined in the United States entirely from such crude petroleum; "non-domestic petroleum product" means crude petroleum not wholly of domestic origin and any product refined in the United States which is not derived entirely from crude petroleum of domestic origin; "complying petroleum product" means crude petroleum of foreign origin or any product refined in the United States in whole or in part from crude petroleum of foreign origin, all of which has been, or will be imported by a firm which, during the period of contract performance and for the three months preceding the month in which a bid is submitted to a Government department or agency, has imported crude petroleum in compliance with the Voluntary Oil Import Program. SEC. 2. The heads of all executive departments and agencies are requested to re-examine existing policy with respect to the application of the Buy American Act to petroleum products and to apply the provisions of that act so that, (1) unless a domestic product is unavailable or its cost is determined to be unreasonable, the purchase of a non-domestic petroleum product will be made only if it is a complying petroleum product, and (2) in considering bids no price differential will be applied between domestic and complying petroleum products. SEC. 3. Every contract entered into by any executive department or agency for the purchase in the United States of imported crude petroleum or petroleum products refined in the United States and derived in whole or in part from imported crude petroleum shall contain the following provision: "The contractor agrees that during the contract period he will comply in all respects with the Voluntary Oil Import Program." SEC. 4. The Administrator, Voluntary Oil Import Program, is authorized to issue certificates of compliance with the Voluntary Oil Import Program which may be accepted as conclusive evidence of such compliance. In the absence of such a certificate, a certification or representation of compliance made by the supplier may be considered presumptive evidence of compliance. SEC. 5. Executive Order No. 10582 of December 17, 1954, "Prescribing Uniform Procedures for Certain Determinations under the Buy American Act," shall not be applicable to crude petroleum and petroleum products. SEC. 6. This order shall be applicable to contracts entered into thirty days after the date hereof. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

March 27, 1958.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 10,761 (Mar. 27, 1958), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10761-government-purchases-crude-petroleum-and-petroleum-products.