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Executive Order 12274 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 12274—Military Pay and Allowances

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Friday, January 16, 1981
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5 min read (1,034 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 5 min read (1,034 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further amended by revising Section 106 of Part I thereof to read as follows: "Sec. 106(a).

⚖️ 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 Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Jimmy Carter on January 16, 1981, this order concerns Military Pay and Allowances. 1-1. Incentive Pay for Submarine Duty. 1-101. Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further amended by revising Section 106 of Part I thereof to read as follows: "Sec. 106(a). As determined by the Secretary of the Navy, a member who is entitled to basic pay, who holds or is in training leading to a submarine duty designator, who is not entitled to continuous monthly submarine duty incentive pay, and who is in…

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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Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further amended by revising Section 106 of Part I thereof to read as follows: "Sec. 106(a).

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"(d) The Secretary of the Navy is hereby designated and empowered to issue additional implementing regulations with respect to entitlement of regular and reserve officers and enlisted members of the Navy to submarine duty incentive pay, or continuous monthly submarine duty incentive pay.". 1-2.

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Of Part II of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further revised to read as follows: "Sec. 201(a).

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The following members of a uniformed service who are entitled to receive basic pay shall be entitled to receive, additionally, career sea pay while on sea duty: (1) enlisted members who are in pay grade E-4 or above, (2) warrant officers, (3) commissioned officers in pay grade 0-3 or above who have over three years of sea duty, and (4) commissioned officers in pay grades O-1 and 0-2 with at least four years active service as enlisted members or as noncommissioned warrant officers and over three years of sea duty.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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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
58 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

High Friction

Touches upon core congressional prerogatives: raises appropriations reallocation, tariff imposition, or statutory preemption questions.

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
1,034
6,052 characters
Estimated Read Time
5 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
14.9
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America by Sections 301c, 305a, and 403 of Title 37 of the United States Code, and in order to implement incentive pay for submarine duty for Navy enlisted members and officers, to implement special pay for officers serving on sea duty and increased rates of special pay for enlisted personnel serving on sea duty, and to extend the payment of basic allowances for quarters to certain members without dependents, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1-1. Incentive Pay for Submarine Duty. 1-101. Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further amended by revising Section 106 of Part I thereof to read as follows: "Sec. 106(a). As determined by the Secretary of the Navy, a member who is entitled to basic pay, who holds or is in training leading to a submarine duty designator, who is not entitled to continuous monthly submarine duty incentive pay, and who is in and remains in the submarine service on a career basis, is also entitled to submarine duty incentive pay for the frequent and regular performance of operational submarine duty required by orders, except as provided by 37 U.S.C. 301c(c). "(b) To the extent provided for by appropriations, a member of the Naval Reserve who is entitled to compensation under Section 206 of Title 37 of the United States Code, and who performs, under orders, duty on a submarine during underway operations, is eligible for an increase in such compensation equal to one-thirtieth of the monthly submarine duty incentive pay for the performance of that duty by a member of a corresponding grade and years of service who is entitled to basic pay when those orders specify such increased entitlement. Such member is eligible for the increase for each day served, for as long as he is qualified for it, during each regular period of appropriate duty. "(c) As determined by the Secretary of the Navy, a member who is entitled to basic pay, who holds or is in training leading to a submarine duty designator and who is in and remains in the submarine service on a career basis, is entitled to continuous monthly submarine duty incentive pay, subject to the performance of required number of years of operational submarine duty (37 U.S.C. 301c(a) (3)(4)), except as provided by 37 U.S.C. 301c(c). "(d) The Secretary of the Navy is hereby designated and empowered to issue additional implementing regulations with respect to entitlement of regular and reserve officers and enlisted members of the Navy to submarine duty incentive pay, or continuous monthly submarine duty incentive pay.". 1-2. Special Pay for Career Sea Duty. 1-201. Section 201 of Part II of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further revised to read as follows: "Sec. 201(a). The following members of a uniformed service who are entitled to receive basic pay shall be entitled to receive, additionally, career sea pay while on sea duty: (1) enlisted members who are in pay grade E-4 or above, (2) warrant officers, (3) commissioned officers in pay grade 0-3 or above who have over three years of sea duty, and (4) commissioned officers in pay grades O-1 and 0-2 with at least four years active service as enlisted members or as noncommissioned warrant officers and over three years of sea duty. "(b) The period of sea duty shall include the date of reporting and the date of detachment as stated in orders. Career sea pay shall be at the rates prescribed in Section 305a of Title 37 of the United States Code.". 1-202. Section 202 of Part II of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is revoked. 1-203. Part II of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further revised by adding a new Section 202 as follows: "Sec. 202. A member of a uniformed service who is entitled to career sea pay and who has served 36 consecutive months of sea duty as such period is computed under regulations of the Secretary concerned, is entitled to a monthly career sea pay premium for the thirty-seventh consecutive month and each subsequent consecutive month of sea duty service by such member when such member is entitled to career sea pay. In the regulations published by the Secretary concerned, the term 'consecutive months of sea duty' may be defined to include periods during which a member is serving in or under orders to duties, service in which qualifies the member for career sea pay, either periodically or continuously during assignment to such duties. Examples of such periods are periods of service as a member of a two crewed submarine or fleet aviation units assigned to ships, or periods for training, hospitalization, or other periods of a similar nature.". 1-204. Section 206 of Part II of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further revised by deleting subsection (b). 1-3. Basic Allowance for Quarters. 1-301. Subsection 401 of Part IV of Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is amended by adding new subsections (e) and (f) as follows: "(e) The term 'deployed' shall apply to time during which the unit is at sea or in a port more than 50 miles from its home port; provided, however, time during which the unit is in a port for overhaul or extended repairs is not to be considered deployed time. Unanticipated overhauls or extended repairs which occur during a period scheduled as extended deployment in the mission assignment of the ship is time deployed unless otherwise classified by appropriate command authority. "(f) The phrase "while the unit to which he is assigned is deployed for a period in excess of 90 days" shall apply to periods of time commencing on the 91st day the unit to which the member is assigned is deployed.". 1-302. Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, is further amended by deleting section 408 of Part IV thereof. 1-4. Effective Date. 1-401. The amendments made by this Order to Executive Order No. 11157, as amended, shall be effective as of January 1, 1981. JIMMY CARTER The White House, January 16, 1981. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:22 a.m., January 19, 1981]

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 12,274 (Jan. 16, 1981), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12274-military-pay-and-allowances.