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Executive Order 11156 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 11156—Establishing a Maritime Advisory Committee

Lyndon B. Johnson

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Wednesday, June 17, 1964

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3 min read (534 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (534 words) • ● In Effect

🎯 Primary Mandate

The Committee shall consider such matters of policy and administration of government programs affecting the Maritime industry as it deems to be in the public interest, including policies and practices which may be followed by labor, management, or the Government for strengthening the trade, national defense, manpower, and labor relations programs of the Maritime industry.

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 Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

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 June 17, 1964, this order concerns Establishing a Maritime Advisory Committee. There is hereby established a Maritime Advisory Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee). The Committee shall be composed of: (1) An equal number of representatives of the public at large, labor, and management, respectively, who shall be designated by the President and shall serve at his pleasure. (2) The Secretary of Commerce, who shall serve as chairman of the Committee. (3) The Secretary of Labor.

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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Functions of the Committee

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Procedure; agency cooperation

All such departments, agencies, committees, and commissions shall cooperate with the Committee by furnishing information which it requests insofar as is reasonable and not inconsistent with law.

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Expenditures

As may be necessary for the effectuation of the purposes of this order, each agency the head of which is a member of the Committee under the provisions of Section 1(a) hereof shall furnish assistance to the Committee as permitted by law, including Section 214 of the Act of May 3,1945,69 Stat. 134 (31 U.S.C. 691).

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Construction

All functions of the Committee under the foregoing provisions of this order shall be deemed to be advisory only; accordingly, no Federal function, agency, or officer (including any Federal officer who under this order is a member of or may participate in the affairs of the Committee) shall be subject to control by the Committee or by any action taken by the Committee.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners

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 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

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

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

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

📐

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

41 / 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

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

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%).

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

534

3,336 characters

Estimated Read Time

3 min

@ 200 words / min

Flesch-Kincaid

15.9

College Level

Language Tone Score

+0.02

Constitutional Neutral

How is this scored?

Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

📑Sections Outline (5 sections)

Sec. 1: Committee established Sec. 2: Functions of the Committee Sec. 3 Sec. 4: Expenditures Sec. 5: Construction

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

Section 1. #sec-1

Committee established. (a) There is hereby established a Maritime Advisory Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee). The Committee shall be composed of: (1) An equal number of representatives of the public at large, labor, and management, respectively, who shall be designated by the President and shall serve at his pleasure. (2) The Secretary of Commerce, who shall serve as chairman of the Committee. (3) The Secretary of Labor. (b) The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Navy, the Administrator of the Maritime Administration, and the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service or their designee shall be present at all meetings of the Committee.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Functions of the Committee. The Committee shall consider such matters of policy and administration of government programs affecting the Maritime industry as it deems to be in the public interest, including policies and practices which may be followed by labor, management, or the Government for strengthening the trade, national defense, manpower, and labor relations programs of the Maritime industry. The Committee shall also be the forum within which the recommendations of the representatives of public, labor and management members with respect to these matters shall be presented to and discussed with the Secretaries of Labor and Commerce and such other Federal officials designated in Section 1 as may be appropriate.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Procedure; agency cooperation. Subject to law, the Committee may use available appropriate studies and resources of Federal departments, agencies, committees, and commissions. All such departments, agencies, committees, and commissions shall cooperate with the Committee by furnishing information which it requests insofar as is reasonable and not inconsistent with law.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

Expenditures. (a) As may be necessary for the effectuation of the purposes of this order, each agency the head of which is a member of the Committee under the provisions of Section 1(a) hereof shall furnish assistance to the Committee as permitted by law, including Section 214 of the Act of May 3,1945,69 Stat. 134 (31 U.S.C. 691). (b) Members of the Committee shall receive no compensation from the United States by virtue of this order except that those members under Section 1(a) (1) who are representatives of the public at large shall each receive compensation of $75 for each day such member is engaged in meetings of the Committee or is with the approval of the Chairman of the Committee engaged in other work in pursuance of this order. Members of the Committee under Section 1(a)(1) hereof may be allowed travel expenses and per diem in lieu of subsistence as authorized by law (5 U.S.C. 73b-2) for persons serving without compensation.

Sec. 5. #sec-5

Construction. All functions of the Committee under the foregoing provisions of this order shall be deemed to be advisory only; accordingly, no Federal function, agency, or officer (including any Federal officer who under this order is a member of or may participate in the affairs of the Committee) shall be subject to control by the Committee or by any action taken by the Committee. LYNDON B. JOHNSON The White House, June 17, 1964.

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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 11427—Terminating the Maritime Advisory Committee

Lyndon B. Johnson • 1968-09-04

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 11,156 (June 17, 1964), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11156-establishing-maritime-advisory-committee.