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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 10764 ⚖️⚠️ Zone 3: Lowest Ebb Constitutional Friction / Overreach (-0.19) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief / War Prerogative Tension

Executive Order 10764—Suspension of the Eight-Hour Law as to Laborers and Mechanics Employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on Public Work Essential to the National Defense

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower
•
Wednesday, April 23, 1958
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2 min read (342 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (342 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby suspend the above-mentioned provisions of law prohibiting more than eight hours of labor in any one calendar day by laborers and mechanics employed by the Government of the United States as to all work performed by laborers and mechanics employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on any public work which is essential to the national defense: Provided, that the wages of all laborers and mechanics so employed shall be computed on a basic day rate of eight hours of work with overtime to be paid at a rate not less than time and one-half for all hours of work in excess of eight hours in any one day.

View all 2 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️⚠️ Zone 3: Lowest Ebb
Incompatible with Expressed Will of Congress or High Friction
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief / War Prerogative Tension
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Private Citizens & Property Owners Foreign Nations & International Entities
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 Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 23, 1958, this order concerns Suspension of the Eight-Hour Law as to Laborers and Mechanics Employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on Public Work Essential to the National Defense. I hereby suspend the above-mentioned provisions of law prohibiting more than eight hours of labor in any one calendar day by laborers and mechanics employed by the Government of the United States as to all work performed by laborers and mechanics employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on any public work which is essential to the national defense: Provided, that the wages of all laborers and mechanics so…

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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I hereby suspend the above-mentioned provisions of law prohibiting more than eight hours of labor in any one calendar day by laborers and mechanics employed by the Government of the United States as to all work performed by laborers and mechanics employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on any public work which is essential to the national defense: Provided, that the wages of all laborers and mechanics so employed shall be computed on a basic day rate of eight hours of work with overtime to be paid at a rate not less than time and one-half for all hours of work in excess of eight hours in any one day.

▪

This order shall continue in effect until terminated or revoked by the President.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment
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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 3 (Lowest Ebb)
§

"When the President takes measures incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress, his power is at its lowest ebb."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Incompatible with Expressed Will of Congress or High Friction
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." — Federalist No. 47 (1788)

Madison would express grave alarm over this order. By asserting independent authority in tension with legislative limits or the Bill of Rights, the Executive risks collapsing the separation of powers into unilateral rule. Under the Madisonian model, no emergency justifies the Executive substituting its decree for a deliberative Act of Congress.

Madisonian Stance: Strict Dissent (Overreach)
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 purse and the sword ought never to be in the same hands... nor the liberties of the citizen placed at the pleasure of a single magistrate." — Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)

George Mason and the Anti-Federalists would sound a fierce warning. They feared that Article II would inevitably evolve into an elective monarchy. When an executive order impacts private rights, property, or civil liberties without individualized judicial process, Mason would see their darkest predictions verified.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Vehement Objection
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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.

⚠️ Elevated Constitutional Friction
63 / 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

High Friction

Invokes broad unilateral or emergency executive authorities that test the constitutional boundary of the Take Care Clause.

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

High Friction

Scrutinized under the Bill of Rights for potential impact on private contracts, property rights, or procedural due process.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

High Friction

The order asserts independent Article II prerogative against statutory constraints, reallocates funds without explicit appropriation, or stretches executive power into realms constitutionally reserved to the legislature or judiciary.

Benchmark: Incompatible with Expressed Will of Congress or High Friction
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This directive engages significant constitutional friction across statutory authorization, legislative prerogatives, or individual liberties.

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
342
1,966 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
22.7
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
-0.19
Constitutional Friction / Overreach
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS by Proclamation No. 2914 of December 16, 1950, the President proclaimed the existence of a national emergency, which requires that the military, naval, air, and civilian defenses of this country be strengthened as speedily as possible; and WHEREAS by section 1 of the act of August 1, 1892, 27 Stat. 340, as amended by the act of March 3, 1913, 37 Stat. 726 (40 U.S.C. 321), the service or employment of all laborers and mechanics employed by the Government of the United States upon any public work of the United States is limited to eight hours in any one calendar day, except in case of extraordinary emergency; and WHEREAS it is essential to the national defense that the Nation's system of air-navigation facilities be modernized in a very short period of time, and that such system be operated and maintained at the highest level of efficiency; and WHEREAS I find that as to public work essential to the national defense being performed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration an extraordinary emergency exists:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 1 of the said act of August 1, 1892, as amended by the said act of March 3, 1913, and as President of the United States, I hereby suspend the above-mentioned provisions of law prohibiting more than eight hours of labor in any one calendar day by laborers and mechanics employed by the Government of the United States as to all work performed by laborers and mechanics employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration on any public work which is essential to the national defense: Provided, that the wages of all laborers and mechanics so employed shall be computed on a basic day rate of eight hours of work with overtime to be paid at a rate not less than time and one-half for all hours of work in excess of eight hours in any one day. This order shall continue in effect until terminated or revoked by the President. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

April 23, 1958.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,764 (Apr. 23, 1958), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10764-suspension-the-eight-hour-law-laborers-and-mechanics-employed-the.