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Executive Order 10825 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10825—Excusing Federal Employees From Duty All Day on July 3, 1959

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower
•
Friday, June 12, 1959
•
3 min read (685 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (685 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Except as provided in section 2, employees of the several executive departments, independent establishments, and other governmental agencies, including the General Accounting Office, the Government Printing Office, and the field services of the respective departments, establishments, and agencies of the Government, whose basic workweek includes Friday, July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday falling within their basic workweek, shall be excused from duty all day on Friday, July 3, 1959, the day preceding the Fourth of July; but such day shall not be considered a holiday within the meaning of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, or of any statutes so far as they relate to the compensation and leave of…

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners
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 June 12, 1959, this order concerns Excusing Federal Employees From Duty All Day on July 3, 1959. Except as provided in section 2, employees of the several executive departments, independent establishments, and other governmental agencies, including the General Accounting Office, the Government Printing Office, and the field services of the respective departments, establishments, and agencies of the Government, whose basic workweek includes Friday, July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work on…

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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Except as provided in section 2, employees of the several executive departments, independent establishments, and other governmental agencies, including the General Accounting Office, the Government Printing Office, and the field services of the respective departments, establishments, and agencies of the Government, whose basic workweek includes Friday, July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday falling within their basic workweek, shall be excused from duty all day on Friday, July 3, 1959, the day preceding the Fourth of July; but such day shall not be considered a holiday within the meaning of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, or of any statutes so far as they relate to the compensation and leave of…

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July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work scheduled for the hours of any calendar day on which a holiday falls, shall be excused from work on his entire workday which commences on July 2 or July 3, 1959, as may be determined by the head of the department, establishment, or agency concerned, or his designee.

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This order shall not be construed as excusing from duty (i) those employees of the Department of State, the Department of Defense, or other departments, establishments, or agencies who for national security or other public reasons should, in the judgment of the respective heads thereof, be at their posts of duty on July 3, 1959; or (ii) those employees whose absence from duty on July 3, 1959, would be inconsistent with the provisions of existing law.

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This order shall not apply to (i) any employee who receives holiday or premium pay or compensatory time in lieu thereof, for work performed on Saturday, July 4, 1959, or any part thereof, or (ii) any employee whose basic workweek includes Saturday, July 4, 1959, or any part thereof and who is excused from duty without loss of pay or leave on a workday which includes all or part of that day.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

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

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Government Operations & Civil Service
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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

"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
50 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

High Friction

Touches upon core congressional prerogatives: raises appropriations reallocation, tariff imposition, or statutory preemption questions.

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
685
4,001 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
25.7
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence, is a day of deepest significance to our Nation; and WHEREAS it is appropriate that we pause from our labors to mark the beginnings of our heritage of liberty and freedom; and WHEREAS the anniversary of our Nation's birth this year falls on Saturday, a non-workday for many employees of the Federal Government, it is appropriate that those employees who do not regularly work on that day be given an alternate day in special observance of this anniversary:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: SECTION 1. (a) Except as provided in section 2, employees of the several executive departments, independent establishments, and other governmental agencies, including the General Accounting Office, the Government Printing Office, and the field services of the respective departments, establishments, and agencies of the Government, whose basic workweek includes Friday, July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday falling within their basic workweek, shall be excused from duty all day on Friday, July 3, 1959, the day preceding the Fourth of July; but such day shall not be considered a holiday within the meaning of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, or of any statutes so far as they relate to the compensation and leave of employees of the United States. (b) Any employee of the several departments, establishments, and agencies mentioned in subsection (a), whose workday (as the term "workday" is defined in section 2(b) of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952) covers portions of two calendar days including Friday. July 3, 1959, and who would ordinarily be excused from work scheduled for the hours of any calendar day on which a holiday falls, shall be excused from work on his entire workday which commences on July 2 or July 3, 1959, as may be determined by the head of the department, establishment, or agency concerned, or his designee. SEC. 2. (a) This order shall not be construed as excusing from duty (i) those employees of the Department of State, the Department of Defense, or other departments, establishments, or agencies who for national security or other public reasons should, in the judgment of the respective heads thereof, be at their posts of duty on July 3, 1959; or (ii) those employees whose absence from duty on July 3, 1959, would be inconsistent with the provisions of existing law. (b) This order shall not apply to (i) any employee who receives holiday or premium pay or compensatory time in lieu thereof, for work performed on Saturday, July 4, 1959, or any part thereof, or (ii) any employee whose basic workweek includes Saturday, July 4, 1959, or any part thereof and who is excused from duty without loss of pay or leave on a workday which includes all or part of that day. SEC. 3. Any employee mentioned in section 1 who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday, but who (i) is not excused from duty all day on Friday, July 3, 1959, or from duty on a workday which includes portions of that day, or (ii) whose basic workweek does not include July 3, 1959, or any portion thereof, shall be excused from duty, without charge to leave or loss of pay, on one other workday in the fiscal year 1960, at such time as may be requested by the employee and approved by the head of the department, agency, or establishment concerned or his designee. SEC. 4. This order shall not be construed as providing a basis for granting holiday, premium, or overtime pay for Friday, July 3, 1959, or any portion of such day. Heads of the respective departments, agencies, and establishments are requested to arrange their affairs in a manner which will permit them to excuse employees from duty on that day, or to grant compensatory time in lieu thereof, without the need for additional appropriations. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

June 12, 1959.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,825 (June 12, 1959), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10825-excusing-federal-employees-from-duty-all-day-july-3-1959.