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Executive Order 10905 ⚖️⚠️ Zone 3: Lowest Ebb Constitutional Friction / Overreach (-0.19) 📜 Art. I §8: Legislative Prerogative Tension (Purse & Commerce)

Executive Order 10905—Amendment of Executive Order 6260 of August 28, 1933, as Amended

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower
•
Saturday, January 14, 1961
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2 min read (491 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (491 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

President of the United States of America, do hereby further amend Executive Order No. 6260, as amended, as follows: 1.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️⚠️ Zone 3: Lowest Ebb
Incompatible with Expressed Will of Congress or High Friction
📜 Art. I §8: Legislative Prerogative Tension (Purse & Commerce)
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Private Citizens & Property Owners Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
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 January 14, 1961, this order concerns Amendment of Executive Order 6260 of August 28, 1933, as Amended. President of the United States of America, do hereby further amend Executive Order No. 6260, as amended, as follows: 1. By amending section 2 to read as follows: "2. As used in this order, the term `person' means an individual, partnership, association or corporation; the term 'United States' means the United States and any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof; and the term 'person subject to the jurisdiction…

Constitutional Assessment: An early statesman would subject this decree to rigorous scrutiny under Article I, Section 8. The Framers deliberately committed commerce, taxation, tariffs, and revenue to Congress alone. To the extent this order imposes duties or financial burdens without explicit statutory pre-authorization, it creates friction with the separation of powers.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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President of the United States of America, do hereby further amend Executive Order No. 6260, as amended, as follows: 1.

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By amending section 2 to read as follows: "2.

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Except under license issued therefor pursuant to the provisions of this order, no person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall, after the effective date of this section, acquire, hold in his possession, earmark, or retain any interest, legal or equitable, in any gold coin (other than gold coin having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coin), gold certificates, or gold bullion situated outside of the United States, or any securities issued by any person holding, as a substantial part of his assets, gold as a store of value or as, or in lieu of, money and not for a specific and customary industrial, professional or artistic use.

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The Secretary of the Treasury, subject to such other regulations as he may prescribe, is authorized to issue licenses permitting, until June 1, 1961, the holding and disposition of any such securities or gold coin, certificates or bullion acquired by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States prior to the effective date of this section and owned by such persons on such date.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Economy & Finance
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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: Qualified Caution
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
72 / 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

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

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

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
491
2,958 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
19.7
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
-0.19
Constitutional Friction / Overreach
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 5(b) of the act of October 6, 1917, as amended, 12 U.S.C. § 95a, and in view of the continued existence of the national emergency proclaimed by Proclamation No. 2914 of December 16, 1950, I, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, President of the United States of America, do hereby further amend Executive Order No. 6260, as amended, as follows: 1. By amending section 2 to read as follows: "2. As used in this order, the term `person' means an individual, partnership, association or corporation; the term 'United States' means the United States and any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof; and the term 'person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States' means: (a) any individual who is a citizen of the United States; (b) any individual, wherever located, who is a resident of, or domiciled in, the United States; (c) any partnership, association, corporation or other organization which is organized or doing business under the laws of the United States or of any state or territory thereof or the District of Columbia; and (d) any partnership, association, corporation or other organization wherever organized or doing business which is owned or controlled by persons specified in (a), (b), or (c)." 2. By adding at the end thereof a new section 12 reading as follows: "12. Except under license issued therefor pursuant to the provisions of this order, no person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall, after the effective date of this section, acquire, hold in his possession, earmark, or retain any interest, legal or equitable, in any gold coin (other than gold coin having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coin), gold certificates, or gold bullion situated outside of the United States, or any securities issued by any person holding, as a substantial part of his assets, gold as a store of value or as, or in lieu of, money and not for a specific and customary industrial, professional or artistic use. The Secretary of the Treasury, subject to such other regulations as he may prescribe, is authorized to issue licenses permitting, until June 1, 1961, the holding and disposition of any such securities or gold coin, certificates or bullion acquired by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States prior to the effective date of this section and owned by such persons on such date. The Secretary is further authorized to issue licenses permitting the acquisition and holding by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States of gold bullion situated outside of the United States which the Secretary or such agency as he may designate is satisfied is required for legitimate and customary use in the industry, profession or art in which such person is regularly engaged." This amendment shall become effective upon filing for publication with the Office of the Federal Register. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

January 14, 1961.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

References Executive Order 11825—Revocation of Executive Orders Pertaining to the Regulation of the Acquisition of, Holding of, or Other Transactions in Gold
Gerald R. Ford • 1974-12-31
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,905 (Jan. 14, 1961), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10905-amendment-executive-order-6260-august-28-1933-amended.