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Executive Order 11187 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 11187—Permitting Certain Employees of the Postal Field Service to be Given Career Appointments

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson
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Saturday, October 24, 1964
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2 min read (383 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (383 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Civil Service Commission may prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this order.

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 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 October 24, 1964, this order concerns Permitting Certain Employees of the Postal Field Service to be Given Career Appointments. . Except as provided by section 3 hereof, any employee of the Postal Field Service who on the date of this order is serving in a position in the competitive service under an indefinite appointment or a temporary appointment may have his appointment converted to a career appointment: Provided, that such employee— (1) shall be recommended for appointment to a career position by his appointing officer within one year…

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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This order shall not apply to postmasters or rural carriers

The Civil Service Commission may prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this order.

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Except as provided by section 3 hereof, any employee of the Postal Field Service who on the date of this order is serving in a position in the competitive service under an indefinite appointment or a temporary appointment may have his appointment converted to a career appointment: Provided, that such employee— (1) shall be recommended for appointment to a career position by his appointing officer within one year after the date of this order; (2) during each year of the three-year period ending on the date that conversion of his appointment is recommended, shall have been paid for at least 700 hours of satisfactory work in a position or positions in the Postal Service; (3) shall have passed a qualifying examination for a position in the…

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The conversion of the appointment of a substitute employee shall be effected only as career substitute vacancies are available, under 39 U.S.C. 3302, in the Postal Field Service.

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This order shall not apply to postmasters or rural carriers.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Government Operations & Civil Service 🏷️ National Security & Defense
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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

"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
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
383
2,288 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
18.9
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

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

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Civil Service Act (22 Stat. 403) and section 1753 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (5 TJ.S.C. 631) and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1 (a). Except as provided by section 3 hereof, any employee of the Postal Field Service who on the date of this order is serving in a position in the competitive service under an indefinite appointment or a temporary appointment may have his appointment converted to a career appointment: Provided, that such employee— (1) shall be recommended for appointment to a career position by his appointing officer within one year after the date of this order; (2) during each year of the three-year period ending on the date that conversion of his appointment is recommended, shall have been paid for at least 700 hours of satisfactory work in a position or positions in the Postal Service; (3) shall have passed a qualifying examination for a position in the competitive service in which he served during such three-year period, or shall meet such noncompetitive standards as the Civil Service Commission shall prescribe with respect to the position held at the time of the agency recommendation for conversion of his appointment. (b). The conversion of the appointment of a substitute employee shall be effected only as career substitute vacancies are available, under 39 U.S.C. 3302, in the Postal Field Service.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Any person who left a competitive position to enter the armed forces of the United States who would meet the requirements of section 1 except for absence in the armed forces on the date of this order and who is re-employed in a competitive position in the Postal Field Service within 120 days after discharge from the armed forces under honorable conditions may have his appointment converted if he is recommended by his appointing officer within ninety days after his re-employment and qualifies in such examination as the Civil Service Commission may prescribe.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

This order shall not apply to postmasters or rural carriers.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

The Civil Service Commission may prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this order. LYNDON B. JOHNSON The White House, October 24, 1964.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 11,187 (Oct. 24, 1964), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11187-permitting-certain-employees-the-postal-field-service-be-given.