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Executive Order 11008 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 11008—Creating an Emergency Board to Investigate Dispute Between the Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad Company and Other Carriers and Certain of Their Employees

John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy
•
Saturday, March 3, 1962
•
6 min read (1,298 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 6 min read (1,298 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate this dispute.

View all 2 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
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 John F. Kennedy on March 3, 1962, this order concerns Creating an Emergency Board to Investigate Dispute Between the Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad Company and Other Carriers and Certain of Their Employees. I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate this dispute. No member of the board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railroad employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the dispute within thirty days from the date of this order.

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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I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate this dispute.

▪

As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the Akron Barberton Belt Railroad Company and other carriers represented by the Eastern, Western and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committee, or by their employees, in the conditions out of which the dispute arose.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Infrastructure & Transportation 🏷️ 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 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
30 / 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

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

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
1,298
9,290 characters
Estimated Read Time
6 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
32.4
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS a dispute exists between the Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad Company and other carriers represented by the Eastern, Western and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committees, designated in List A attached hereto and made a part hereof, and certain of their employees represented by the Eleven Cooperating Railway Labor organizations, labor organizations, designated in List B attached hereto and made a part hereof; and WHEREAS this dispute has not heretofore been adjusted under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended; and WHEREAS this dispute, in the judgment of the National Mediation Board, threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive the country of essential transportation service:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 160), I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate this dispute. No member of the board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railroad employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the dispute within thirty days from the date of this order. As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the Akron Barberton Belt Railroad Company and other carriers represented by the Eastern, Western and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committee, or by their employees, in the conditions out of which the dispute arose. JOHN F. KENNEDY

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

March 3, 1962 LIST A EASTERN RAILROADS Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad Company Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Company Ann Arbor Railroad Company Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad Company Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway Company Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Company Boston & Maine Railroad Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Buffalo Creek Railroad Bush Terminal Railroad Company Canadian National Railways Canadian Pacific Railway Company The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey New York & Long Branch R.R. Company Central Vermont Railway, Inc. Chicago Union Station Company Cincinnati Union Terminal Company Dayton Union Railway Company Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corporation Detroit and Toledo Shore Line Railroad Company Detroit Terminal Railroad Company Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad Company Eric-Lackawanna Railroad Company Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company The Indianapolis Union Railway Company The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway Company Lehigh Valley Railroad Company Long Island Railroad Company Maine Central Railroad Company Portland Terminal Company Monon Railroad Company Monongahela Railway Company Montour Railroad Company NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM New York Central Railroad Company New York District (Including Grand Central Terminal) Eastern District (Including Boston & Albany Division) Western District Northern District Southern District Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Company Chicago River & Indiana Railroad Company Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company Lake Erie and Eastern Railroad Company Cleveland Union Terminals Company Troy Union Railroad Company New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company New York Dock Railway New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad Company The Pennsylvania Railroad Company Baltimore and Eastern Railroad Company Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway Company Pittsburgh, Chartiers & Youghiogheny Railway Company Railroad Perishable Inspection Agency Reading Company Philadelphia, Reading and Pottsville Telegraph Company The River Terminal Railway Company Toledo Terminal Railroad Company Union Depot Company ( Columbus, Ohio) Upper Merion & Plymouth Railroad Company Washington Terminal Company Western Maryland Railway Company Youngstown & Southern Railway Company WESTERN RAILROADS Alton and Southern Railroad Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Panhandle and Santa Fe Bauxite and Northern Belt Railway Company of Chicago Camas Prairie Railroad Company Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Chicago & Illinois Midland Railroad Chicago and Illinois Western Railroad Chicago and North Western Railway (Including Former Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, Former L&M and Former M&StL.) Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Chicago Great Western Railway Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Chicago Produce Terminal Company Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Colorado and Southern Railway Colorado and Wyoming Railway Davenport, Rock Island and North Western Railroad Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Denver Union Terminal Railway Des Moines Union Railway Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Duluth Union Depot and Transfer Company Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway El Paso Union Passenger Depot Forth Worth and Denver Railway Company Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad Great Northern Railway Green Bay and Western Railroad Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Illinois Central Railroad Illinois Northern Railway Illinois Terminal Railroad Joint Texas Division of CRI&P and Ft.W&D Joliet Union Depot Company Joplin Union Depot Company Kansas City Southern Railway Arkansas Western Railway Kansas City Shreveport and Gulf Terminal Kansas City Terminal Railway King Street Passenger Station (Seattle) Lake Superior & Ishpeming Lake Superior Terminal and Transfer Railway Los Angeles Junction Railway Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company Manufacturers Railway Midland Valley Railroad Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Oklahoma City-ADA-Atoka Railway Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway Minnesota and Manitoba Minnesota Transfer Railway Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company Beaver, Meade and Englewood Railroad Missouri Pacific Railroad (Western, Southern and Gulf District) Missouri-Illinois Railroad Northern Pacific Railroad Northern Pacific Terminal Company of Oregon Northwestern Pacific Railroad Ogden Union Railway and Depot Company Oregon, California & Eastern Railway Pacific Coast Railroad Company Paducah and Illinois Railroad Company Peabody Short Lines Peoria and Pekin Union Railway Peoria Terminal Company Port Terminal Railroad Association Pueblo Joint Interchange Bureau St. Joseph Terminal Railroad Company St. Louis-San Francisco Railway St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas Railway St. Louis Southwestern Railway St. Paul Union Depot Company San Diego & Arizona Eastern Sioux City Terminal Railway Soo Line Railroad Company Southern Pacific Company (Pacific Lines) Southern Pacific Company—Texas and Louisiana Lines Spokane International Railway Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Oregon Trunk Railway Oregon Electric Railway Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Texarkana Union Station Trust Texas and Pacific Railway Abilene and Southern Railway Fort Worth Belt Railway Texas-New Mexico Railway Texas Short Line Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Texas Mexican Railway Company Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal R. R. of New Orleans Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad Tremont & Gulf Railway Union Pacific Railroad Union Railway Company (Memphis) Union Terminal Company (Dallas) Wabash Railroad Company Walla Walla Valley Railway Company Warren & Ouachita Valley Railway Western Pacific Railroad Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau SOUTHEASTERN RAILROADS Atlanta & West Point Rail Road Company The Western Railway of Alabama Atlanta Joint Terminals Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company Augusta Union Station Company Birmingham Southern Railroad Company Central of Georgia Railway Company Albany Passenger Terminal Company Macon Terminal Company The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company Clinchfield Railroad Company Georgia Railroad Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company Jacksonville Terminal Company Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Railroad Company Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad Company Norfolk & Western Railway Company Norfolk Southern Railway Company Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Company Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company Southern Railway Company The Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company The Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Company Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Company New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad Company The New Orleans Terminal Company Harriman & Northeastern Railroad Company St. Johns River Terminal Company Tennessee Central Railway Company LIST B International Association of Machinists International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers Sheet Metal Workers' International Association International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes The Order of Railroad Telegraphers Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen Hotel and Restaurant Employes & Bartenders' International Union

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 11,008 (Mar. 3, 1962), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11008-creating-emergency-board-investigate-dispute-between-the-akron.