★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 11685 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 11685—Amending Executive Order No. 10973, Relating to Administration of Foreign Assistance and Related Functions, and Executive Order No. 11501, Relating to Administration of Foreign Military Sales

•
Monday, September 25, 1972
•
3 min read (672 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (672 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order No. 10973 of November 3, 1961, as amended, is hereby amended as follows: 1.

⚖️ 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 Foreign Nations & International Entities

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 September 25, 1972, this order concerns Amending Executive Order No. 10973, Relating to Administration of Foreign Assistance and Related Functions, and Executive Order No. 11501, Relating to Administration of Foreign Military Sales. Executive Order No. 10973 of November 3, 1961, as amended, is hereby amended as follows: 1. Section 101 is amended by redesignating clause (5) as clause (6) and inserting after the comma at the end of clause (4) a new clause (5), as follows: "(5) Section 8(d) of the Act of January 12, 1971 (P.L. 91-672; 84 Stat. 2055)3" 2.

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

▪

Executive Order No. 10973 of November 3, 1961, as amended, is hereby amended as follows: 1.

▪

Is amended by redesignating clause (5) as clause (6) and inserting after the comma at the end of clause (4) a new clause (5), as follows: "(5) Section 8(d) of the Act of January 12, 1971 (P.L. 91-672; 84 Stat. 2055)3" 2.

▪

Subsections (b) and (c) of section 102 are amended to read as follows: "(b) The Agency shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed pursuant to section 624(a) of the Act.

▪

"(c) The other officers provided for in section 624(a) of the Act shall also serve in the Agency." 3.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
🏛️

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)
§

"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
30 / 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

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

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

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%).
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
672
3,776 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
10.8
High School
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 section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (22 U.S.C. 2381), and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: PART 1. FOREIGN ASSISTANCE Executive Order No. 10973 of November 3, 1961, as amended, is hereby amended as follows: 1. Section 101 is amended by redesignating clause (5) as clause (6) and inserting after the comma at the end of clause (4) a new clause (5), as follows: "(5) Section 8(d) of the Act of January 12, 1971 (P.L. 91-672; 84 Stat. 2055)3" 2. Subsections (b) and (c) of section 102 are amended to read as follows: "(b) The Agency shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed pursuant to section 624(a) of the Act. "(c) The other officers provided for in section 624(a) of the Act shall also serve in the Agency." 3. Section 103 is revoked. 4. Paragraph (a) of Section 201 is amended by inserting "(except Chapter 4 thereof)" after "Part II". 5. Section 203 is amended as follows: (a) In paragraph (a), delete "506(a)" and insert in lieu thereof "505(a)". (b) In paragraph (b), delete "506 (b)" and insert in lieu thereof "505 (b)". (c) Paragraph (c) and paragraph (d) are revoked. (d) A new paragraph (f) is added at the end of section 203 as follows: "(f) Those under section 514 of the Act." 6. Section 301 is amended as follows: (a) Paragraph (a) is amended to read as follows: "(a) The functions conferred upon the President by subsections (a) (2) and (b) of section 514 of the Act and by the second sentence of section 612(a) of the Act." (b) A new paragraph (c) is added at the end of section 301 as follows: "(c) In carrying out the functions under section 514 of the Act delegated to him by this order, the Secretary of the Treasury shall consult with the Secretary of State." 7. Section 401 is amended as follows: (a) In paragraph (a), delete ", and 634(a)" and insert "and" after "633(a),". (b) In paragraph (c), delete the section numbers therein and insert in lieu thereof "202 (b), 205, 303, 481, 505(b) (4), 506(a), 604(a), 610, 614(c), 624(d)(7), 632(b), and 634(c) of the Act." (c) In subparagraph (d) (2), delete "506(b) (1), (2), and (3)" and insert in lieu thereof "505(b) (1), (2), and (3)". (d) Subparagraph (d) (3) is revoked. (e) A new subparagraph (d) (5) shall be added at the end of paragraph (d) as follows: "(5) That under the second sentence of section 654(c) with respect to the publication in the Federal Register of any finding or determination reserved to the President: Provided, that any officer to whom there is delegated the function of making any finding or determination within the purview of section 654(a) is also authorized to reach the conclusion specified in the second sentence of section 654(c) in performance of the function delegated to him." (f) Paragraph (g) is amended to read as follows: "(g) That under section 502 of the Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriation Act, 1972 (86 Stat. 55), with respect to certification." 8. Section 601 is amended by inserting ", as amended," after "Foreign Assistance Act of 1961." 9. Section 604 is amended by adding thereto a new subsection (f), as follows: "(f) In conformity with section 202(b) of the Act of February 7, 1972 (P.L. 92-226; 86 Stat. 27), references in this order to Part I of the Act shall be deemed to include also chapter 4 of Part II of the Act, and references in this order to Part II of the Act shall be deemed to exclude chapter 4 of Part II of the Act." PART II. FOREIGN MILITARY SALES Section 1(i) of Executive Order No. 11501 of December 22, 1969, is hereby amended by deleting "42 (b)" and inserting in lieu thereof "42(c)." RICHARD NIXON The White House, September 25, 1972.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 11,685 (Sept. 25, 1972), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11685-amending-executive-order-no-10973-relating-administration-foreign.