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Executive Order 11155 Amended ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 11155—Providing for the Recognition of Certain Students as Presidential Scholars

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson
•
Saturday, May 23, 1964
•
3 min read (506 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (506 words) • ● Amended
🎯 Primary Mandate

There is hereby established the Commission on Presidential Scholars (hereinafter referred to as the Commission).

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 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 Lyndon B. Johnson on May 23, 1964, this order concerns Providing for the Recognition of Certain Students as Presidential Scholars. There is hereby established the Commission on Presidential Scholars (hereinafter referred to as the Commission). The Commission shall be composed of such members as the President may appoint from time to time from among appropriately qualified citizens of the United States.

Constitutional Assessment: Evaluated against the Fifth Amendment, this action touches upon property or economic rights. An early statesman would insist upon strict adherence to due process of law and the constitutional guarantee that private holdings shall not be encumbered or taken for public purposes without just compensation and lawful process.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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There is hereby established the Commission on Presidential Scholars (hereinafter referred to as the Commission).

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The Commission shall be composed of such members as the President may appoint from time to time from among appropriately qualified citizens of the United States.

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The person chosen each year, with the cooperation of the Commissioner of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, as National Teacher of the Year shall be one of the members of the Commission for a period terminating one year after the date of his or her selection as National Teacher of the Year or at such earlier time as a next-succeeding National Teacher of the Year is chosen.

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The President shall designate one of the members as chairman of the Commission.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Education
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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)
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"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 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: High Bill of Rights Scrutiny
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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
47 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

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
506
3,188 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
16.2
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (4 sections)
Sec. 1Sec. 2Sec. 3Sec. 4

WHEREAS it is necessary in the national interest that the Federal Government encourage high attainment by students in secondary schools, both public and private, throughout the Nation, and WHEREAS national recognition of scholastic attainments will tend to enhance the accomplishments of such students generally and their potential after graduation:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

There is hereby established the Commission on Presidential Scholars (hereinafter referred to as the Commission). The Commission shall be composed of such members as the President may appoint from time to time from among appropriately qualified citizens of the United States. The person chosen each year, with the cooperation of the Commissioner of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, as National Teacher of the Year shall be one of the members of the Commission for a period terminating one year after the date of his or her selection as National Teacher of the Year or at such earlier time as a next-succeeding National Teacher of the Year is chosen. The President shall designate one of the members as chairman of the Commission. Members of the Commission shall serve at the pleasure of the President and without compensation from the United States.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

The Commission, in accordance with such standards and procedures as it may prescribe and on the basis of its independent judgment, shall annually choose Presidential Scholars, subject to the following: (1) The Presidential Scholars shall be chosen from among persons who have recently been graduated, or are about to be graduated, from secondary schools, public or private. (2) They shall be chosen on the basis of their outstanding scholarship. (3) One boy and one girl shall be chosen as Presidential Scholars from each of the following, namely: (i) Each State of the United States. (ii) The District of Columbia. (iii) The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. (iv) The following, collectively: American Samoa, Canal Zone, Guam, Virgin Islands, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and, if the Commission in its discretion shall so determine, other places overseas. In respect of the said other places overseas, only children whose parents are citizens of the United States shall be eligible to be chosen hereunder as Presidential Scholars from those places. (4) In addition to the 106 Presidential Scholars provided for in paragraph (3), above, the Commission may choose other Presidential Scholars, not exceeding fifteen in number for any one year, to be chosen at large from the jurisdictions referred to in that paragraph.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

There is hereby established the Presidential Scholars Medallion which shall be of such design and material as the President shall approve and shall be presented to each Presidential Scholar chosen by the Commission under this order.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

As necessary and subject to law, the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, shall facilitate, or make arrangements for facilitating the carrying out of the purposes of this order. LYNDON B. JOHNSON The White House, May 23, 1964.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (2)

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

Amends Executive Order 13697—Amendment to Executive Order 11155, Awards for Special Capability in Career and Technical Education
Barack Obama • 2015-06-22
Amends Executive Order 12158—Presidential Scholars
Jimmy Carter • 1979-09-18
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 11,155 (May 23, 1964), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11155-providing-for-the-recognition-certain-students-presidential-scholars.