By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: SEC. 1. 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 of Defense, or other agencies who in the judgment of their agency heads should be at their posts of duty for national security or other public reasons, and those employees whose absence from duty would be inconsistent with the provisions of existing law) shall be excused from duty on Friday, December 26, 1969, the day following Christmas Day. Such day shall be considered a holiday within the meaning of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, as amended, and of all statutes so far as they relate to the compensation and leave of employees of the United States. SEC. 2. The heads of departments, agencies, and independent establishments shall, to the extent consistent with the needs of the service, adopt a liberal policy for the granting of annual leave to all employees who wish to take such leave over the holiday period. RICHARD NIXON The White House December 23, 1969
Executive Order 11503 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 11503—Excusing Federal Employees From Duty on December 26, 1969
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 1 min read (209 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
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 of Defense, or other agencies who in the judgment of their agency heads should be at their posts of duty for national security or other public reasons, and those employees whose absence from duty would be inconsistent with the provisions of existing law) shall be excused from duty on Friday, December 26, 1969, the day following Christmas Day.
⚖️ 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 Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners
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 23, 1969, this order concerns Excusing Federal Employees From Duty on December 26, 1969. 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 of Defense, or other agencies who in the judgment of their agency heads should be at their posts of duty for national security or other…
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
▪
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 of Defense, or other agencies who in the judgment of their agency heads should be at their posts of duty for national security or other public reasons, and those employees whose absence from duty would be inconsistent with the provisions of existing law) shall be excused from duty on Friday, December 26, 1969, the day following Christmas Day.
▪
Such day shall be considered a holiday within the meaning of Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, as amended, and of all statutes so far as they relate to the compensation and leave of employees of the United States.
▪
The heads of departments, agencies, and independent establishments shall, to the extent consistent with the needs of the service, adopt a liberal policy for the granting of annual leave to all employees who wish to take such leave over the holiday period.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities
🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
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
209
1,272 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
17.8
Post-Graduate Legal
Text size:
Related Executive Orders
1 order cited directly in this text, plus related actions from this administration.
EO 10358 Jun 9, 1952
🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 10358—Observance of Holidays by Government Agencies
📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution
This order shall apply to all executive department, independent agencies, and Government-owned or Government-controlled corporations, including their field services. SEC. 2.
Harry S Truman Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
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 11501 Dec 22, 1969
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11501—Administration of Foreign Military Sales
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
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.
Richard Nixon College Level • 2m
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 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. 11,503 (Dec. 23, 1969), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11503-excusing-federal-employees-from-duty-december-26-1969.
