WHEREAS disputes exist between the carriers represented by the National Railway Labor Conference, designated in List A attached hereto and made a part hereof, and certain of their employees represented by the United Transportation Union, a labor organization; and WHEREAS these disputes have not heretofore been adjusted under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended; and WHEREAS these disputes, in the judgment of the National Mediation Board, threaten substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive the country of essential transportation service: Now, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 160), I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate these disputes. No member of the board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railroad employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the disputes within thirty days from the date of this order. As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the carriers represented by the National Railway Labor Conference, or by their employees, in the conditions out of which the disputes arose. RICHARD NIXON The White House July 7, 1970 LIST A EASTERN RAILROADS Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad Company Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Company Ann Arbor Railroad Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (Buffalo Division) Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (Strouds Creek and Muddlety Territory) Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Boston and Maine Corporation Buffalo Creek Railroad Central Railroad Company of New Jersey New York and Long Branch Railroad Central Vermont Railway, Inc. Cincinnati Union Terminal Company Curtis Bay Railroad Company Delaware and Hudson Railway Company Detroit and Mackinac Railway Company Detroit and Toledo Shore Line Railroad Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad Erie Lackawanna Railway Grand Trunk Western Railroad Greenwich and Johnsonville Railway Company Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Indianapolis Union Railway Company Lehigh and New England Railway Company Lehigh Valley Railroad Maine Central Railroad Company Portland Terminal Company McKeesport Connecting Railroad Company Monongahela Railway Monon Railroad Montour Railroad New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad Norfolk and Western Railway Company Lines of former New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Lines of former Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway Northampton and Bath Railroad Penn Central Transportation Company Former Pennsylvania Railroad Company Former New York Central Railroad Company Former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad Company Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, including Lake Erie and Eastern Railroad Reading Company Ironton Railroad Toledo Terminal Railroad Company Washington Terminal Company Western Maryland Railway Company Youngstown and Northern Railroad Company WESTERN RAILROADS Alton and Southern Railway Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company Bauxite and Northern Railway Company Burlington Northern, Inc. (including the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad; former Great Northern Railway; former King Street Passenger Station; former Northern Pacific Railway; former Pacific Coast Railroad and former Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (System Lines)) Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway Company Camas Prairie Railroad Company Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway Company Chicago and North Western Railway Company Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Company Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company Chicago Short Line Railway Chicago, West Pullman and Southern Railroad Company Colorado and Southern Railway Company Davenport, Rock Island and North Western Railway Company Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company Des Moines Union Railway Company Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Company Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway Company East St. Louis Junction Railroad Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company Fort Worth and Denver Railway Company Fort Worth Belt Railway Company Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad Company Galveston Wharves Green Bay and Western Railroad Company Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company Illinois Central Railroad Illinois Northern Railway Illinois Terminal Railroad Joint Texas Division of the CRI&P-Ft.W&D Railway Kansas City Southern Railway Company, (including KCS affiliates at Milwaukee-Kansas City Southern Joint Agency) Kansas City Terminal Railway Company Lake Superior Terminal and Transfer Railway Company Longview, Portland and Northern Railway Company Los Angeles Junction Railway Company Louisiana and Arkansas Railway Company Manufacturers Railway Company Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway Minnesota, Dakota and Western Railway Company Minnesota Transfer Railway Company Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (including the former Union Railway (Memphis)) Missouri-Illinois Railroad Company New Orleans and Lower Coast Railroad Company New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal Norfolk and Western Railway Company (former Wabash Railroad—Lines East and West) Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company Ogden Union Railway and Depot Company Oregon, California and Eastern Railway Company Peoria and Pekin Union Railway Company Portland Terminal Railroad Company Port Terminal Railroad Association St. Joseph Terminal Railroad Company St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company Sioux City Terminal Railway Company Soo Line Railroad Company Southern Pacific Transportation Company (Pacific Lines) (including former El Paso and Southwestern System and Nogales, Arizona, Yard) Southern Pacific Transportation Company (Texas and Louisiana Lines) South Omaha Terminal Railway Company Spokane International Railroad Company Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Texas and Pacific Railway Company (including the former Midland Valley Railway and former Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway) Texas Mexican Railway Company Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad Company Union Pacific Railroad Company Union Terminal Company (Dallas) Union Terminal Railway Company-St. Joseph Belt Railway Company Western Pacific Railroad Company Wichita Terminal Association SOUTHEASTERN RAILROADS Atlanta and West Point Rail Road Company, The Western Railway of Alabama Atlanta Joint Terminals Central of Georgia Railway Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company Clinchfield Railroad Company Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Railroad Company Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company Mississippi Export Railroad Company New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad Company Norfolk and Western Railway Company (Atlantic and Pocahontas Regions) Norfolk Southern Railway Company Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company Southern Railway Alabama Great Southern Railroad (including former New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad) Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (including former Harriman and Northeastern Railroad) Georgia Southern and Florida Railway New Orleans Terminal Company St. Johns River Terminal Company
Executive Order 11543 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Executive Order 11543—Creating an Emergency Board to Investigate Disputes Between the Carriers Represented by the National Railway Labor Conferences and Certain of Their Employees
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 5 min read (1,062 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate these disputes.
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
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 July 7, 1970, this order concerns Creating an Emergency Board to Investigate Disputes Between the Carriers Represented by the National Railway Labor Conferences and Certain of Their Employees. I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate these disputes. No member of the board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railroad employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the disputes within thirty days from the date of this order.
Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.
Key Directives & Operative Actions
▪
I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate these disputes.
▪
The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the disputes within thirty days from the date of this order.
▪
As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the carriers represented by the National Railway Labor Conference, or by their employees, in the conditions out of which the disputes arose.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ 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
"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)
Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.
Hamiltonian Stance: Defends Vigor & Dispatch
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
30 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
Low Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
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
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
1,062
7,658 characters
Estimated Read Time
5 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
31.4
Post-Graduate Legal
Text size:
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📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 11,543 (July 7, 1970), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11543-creating-emergency-board-investigate-disputes-between-the-carriers.
