By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows: SECTION 1. The following functions conferred upon the President by the Foreign Military Sales Act (P.L. 90-629), hereinafter referred to as the "Act", are hereby delegated as follows: (a) Those under section 3 (a) of the Act, with the exception of 3 (a) (1), to the Secretary of State. (b) Those under section 21 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (c) Those under section 22 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (d) That under section 23 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (e) Those under section 24 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (f) Those under section 34 of the Act to the Secretary of State. To the extent the standards and criteria for credit and guaranty transactions are based upon national security and financial policies, the Secretary of State shall obtain the prior concurrence of the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Treasury, respectively. (g) Those under section 35 (a) of the Act to the Secretary of State. (h) Those under section 35 (b) of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (i) That under section 42 (b) of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. SEC. 2. Nothing in this order shall be construed as modifying in any way the responsibility conferred upon the Secretary of State by section 2 (b) of the Act for the continuous supervision and general direction of sales under the Act, including, but not limited to, determining whether a sale should be negotiated, concluded, or terminated and the amount thereof. SEC. 3. In carrying out the functions delegated to them under this order, the Secretaries of State and Defense shall consult with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Administrator of the Agency for International Development, and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on matters pertaining to their responsibilities. SEC. 4. All functions conferred upon the President by the Act that are not delegated by the provisions of this order are hereby reserved to the President. SEC. 5. Funds appropriated to the President for carrying out the Act shall be deemed to be allocated to the Secretary of Defense without any further action of the President. SEC. 6. References in this order to the provisions of the Act shall be deemed to include references thereto, respectively, as amended from time to time. RICHARD NIXON The White House December 22, 1969
Executive Order 11501 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 11501—Administration of Foreign Military Sales
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 2 min read (430 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
The following functions conferred upon the President by the Foreign Military Sales Act (P.L. 90-629), hereinafter referred to as the "Act", are hereby delegated as follows: (a) Those under section 3 (a) of the Act, with the exception of 3 (a) (1), to the Secretary of State.
⚖️ 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 Sovereign State Governments & Localities Foreign Nations & International Entities Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis
Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.
Signed by President Richard Nixon on December 22, 1969, this order concerns Administration of Foreign Military Sales. The following functions conferred upon the President by the Foreign Military Sales Act (P.L. 90-629), hereinafter referred to as the "Act", are hereby delegated as follows: (a) Those under section 3 (a) of the Act, with the exception of 3 (a) (1), to the Secretary of State. (b) Those under section 21 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense. (c) Those under section 22 of the Act to the Secretary of Defense.
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
▪
The following functions conferred upon the President by the Foreign Military Sales Act (P.L. 90-629), hereinafter referred to as the "Act", are hereby delegated as follows: (a) Those under section 3 (a) of the Act, with the exception of 3 (a) (1), to the Secretary of State.
▪
To the extent the standards and criteria for credit and guaranty transactions are based upon national security and financial policies, the Secretary of State shall obtain the prior concurrence of the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Treasury, respectively.
▪
In carrying out the functions delegated to them under this order, the Secretaries of State and Defense shall consult with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Administrator of the Agency for International Development, and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on matters pertaining to their responsibilities.
▪
All functions conferred upon the President by the Act that are not delegated by the provisions of this order are hereby reserved to the President.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities
🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities
🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
Policy Areas & Topics
🏛️
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating 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
"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
📐
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
38 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
Moderate Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
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
Low Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.
Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment
Moderate Friction
Federalism & State Sovereignty
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
Low Friction
Due Process & Individual Rights
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
Moderate Friction
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
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
430
2,482 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
13.1
College Level
Text size:
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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (2)
Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.
Gerald R. Ford • 1977-01-18
Related Executive Orders
Other executive actions signed by Richard Nixon around this period.
EO 11502 Dec 22, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11502—Enlarging the Membership of the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Executive Order No. 11287 of June 28, 1966, entitled "Award and presentation of the National Medal of Science," is hereby amended as follows: (1) By substituting for the words "one ex officio member" in subsection (a) of section 2 the following: "two ex officio members".
Richard Nixon College Level • 1m
EO 11503 Dec 23, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11503—Excusing Federal Employees From Duty on December 26, 1969
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Employees of the several executive departments, independent establishments, and other governmental agencies, including the General Accounting Office and the Government Printing Office, and their field services (except those employees of the Department of State, the Department…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 11500 Dec 12, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11500—Amending Executive Order No. 11452, Establishing the Council for Urban Affairs
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, and as President of the United States, subsection (c) of section 1 of Executive Order No. 11452 of January 23, 1969, entitled "Establishing the Council for Urban Affairs" is amended…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 11499 Dec 11, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11499—Amending Executive Order No. 11248, Placing Certain Positions in Levels IV and V of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Section 2 of Executive Order No. 11248 of October 10, 1965, as amended, placing certain positions in level V of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule, is further amended by deleting "(21) Assistant Archivist, Office of Presidential Libraries, General Services Administration"…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 11498 Dec 1, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11498—Delegating to the Secretary of Defense the Authority to Approve Regulations Governing the Early Discharge of Enlisted Members
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
The Secretary of Defense is hereby designated and empowered to approve regulations issued by the Secretaries concerned under section 1171 of title 10, United States Code, effective January 2, 1968, which relate to the early discharge of regular enlisted members of the armed…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 11504 Jan 14, 1970
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11504—Amending Executive Order No. 11248, Placing Certain Positions in Levels IV and V of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Section 2 of Executive Order No. 11248 of October 10, 1965, as amended, placing certain positions in level V of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule, is further amended by deleting "(19) Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense", and inserting in lieu thereof the…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 11,501 (Dec. 22, 1969), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11501-administration-foreign-military-sales.
