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Executive Order 11395 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 11395—Further Amending Executive Order No. 10713, Providing for Administration of the Ryukyu Islands

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Wednesday, January 31, 1968
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1 min read (270 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 1 min read (270 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Chief Executive, provided that he shall have received at least one-fourth of the total number of votes cast.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments

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 January 31, 1968, this order concerns Further Amending Executive Order No. 10713, Providing for Administration of the Ryukyu Islands. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution, and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United States, subsection (b) of section 8 of Executive Order No. 10713 of June 5, 1967, as amended by Executive Order No. 11010 of March 19, 1962, and Executive Order No. 11263 of December 20, 1965, is further amended to read as follows: "(b) (1) The Chief Executive…

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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The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Chief Executive, provided that he shall have received at least one-fourth of the total number of votes cast.

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The Chief Executive shall be elected on the same day as are the members of the legislative body and shall serve a term concurrent with the term of the members of the legislative body and thereafter until his successor takes office.

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The first such election of the Chief Executive shall be on the same day as the legislative elections in November 1968.

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The legislative body shall by law establish procedures for the election of the Chief Executive, determine the qualifications for the office of Chief Executive, and provide for special elections when necessary to fill a vacancy.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
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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
42 / 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

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

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

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%).
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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
270
1,552 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
14
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution, and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United States, subsection (b) of section 8 of Executive Order No. 10713 of June 5, 1967, as amended by Executive Order No. 11010 of March 19, 1962, and Executive Order No. 11263 of December 20, 1965, is further amended to read as follows: "(b) (1) The Chief Executive shall be elected by the people of the Ryukyu Islands. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Chief Executive, provided that he shall have received at least one-fourth of the total number of votes cast. The Chief Executive shall be elected on the same day as are the members of the legislative body and shall serve a term concurrent with the term of the members of the legislative body and thereafter until his successor takes office. The first such election of the Chief Executive shall be on the same day as the legislative elections in November 1968. The legislative body shall by law establish procedures for the election of the Chief Executive, determine the qualifications for the office of Chief Executive, and provide for special elections when necessary to fill a vacancy. "(2) In the event that a Chief Executive is not, within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the High Commissioner, elected to succeed an incumbent or to fill a vacancy, the High Commissioner may appoint a Chief Executive who shall serve until a successor is duly elected." LYNDON B. JOHNSON The White House January 31, 1968

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 11,395 (Jan. 31, 1968), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11395-further-amending-executive-order-no-10713-providing-for.