★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 12343 Revoked 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.33) 📜 10th Amend: Intergovernmental Federalism Cooperation

Executive Order 12343—Designation of Certain Officers To Act as Secretary of State

Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan
•
Wednesday, January 27, 1982
•
1 min read (252 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 1 min read (252 words) • ● Revoked
🎯 Primary Mandate

During any period when, by reason of absence, disability, or vacancy in office, neither the Secretary of State nor the Deputy Secretary of State, is available to exercise the powers or perform the duties of the Office of the Secretary, an officer from the Department of State who has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in such order as the Secretary of State may from time to time prescribe, shall act as Secretary.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 10th Amend: Intergovernmental Federalism Cooperation
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
Inspect unabridged text ↓

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

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

Signed by President Ronald Reagan on January 27, 1982, this order concerns Designation of Certain Officers To Act as Secretary of State. During any period when, by reason of absence, disability, or vacancy in office, neither the Secretary of State nor the Deputy Secretary of State, is available to exercise the powers or perform the duties of the Office of the Secretary, an officer from the Department of State who has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in such order as the Secretary of State may from…

Constitutional Assessment: Reviewed under the Tenth Amendment and the principle of dual federalism, this order touches upon domains traditionally reserved to the sovereign States. The Framers would caution against any attempt to commandeer state officers or displace local police powers through federal executive fiat.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪

During any period when, by reason of absence, disability, or vacancy in office, neither the Secretary of State nor the Deputy Secretary of State, is available to exercise the powers or perform the duties of the Office of the Secretary, an officer from the Department of State who has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in such order as the Secretary of State may from time to time prescribe, shall act as Secretary.

▪

If no such order of succession is in effect at that time, then such officers shall act as Secretary in descending order of rank, as established by the listing of their offices in Sections 5314 or 5315 of Title 5 of the United States Code, and at each level of the Executive Schedule in the order in which they shall have taken the oath as such officers.

▪

The President may at any time, pursuant to law but without regard to the foregoing provisions of this Order, direct that an officer specified by the President shall act as Secretary of State.

▪

Executive Order No. 10839 is revoked.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Civil Rights & Liberties
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)
§

"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
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: Supportive of Execution
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." — 10th Amendment to the US Constitution (1791)

Mason would scrutinize whether this federal directive intrudes into police powers, land stewardship, or municipal domains historically reserved to local citizens. The Anti-Federalist demand is that federal administration must never supplant state self-governance.

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.

🛡️ High Constitutional Concordance
28 / 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

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

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

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates in close harmony with statutory authority and standard Article II supervisory execution.

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
252
1,390 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
13.9
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.33
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (3 sections)
Sec. 1Sec. 2Sec. 3

By the authority vested in me as President of the United States of America by Section 3347 of Title 5 and Section 301 of Title 3 of the United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

During any period when, by reason of absence, disability, or vacancy in office, neither the Secretary of State nor the Deputy Secretary of State, is available to exercise the powers or perform the duties of the Office of the Secretary, an officer from the Department of State who has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in such order as the Secretary of State may from time to time prescribe, shall act as Secretary. If no such order of succession is in effect at that time, then such officers shall act as Secretary in descending order of rank, as established by the listing of their offices in Sections 5314 or 5315 of Title 5 of the United States Code, and at each level of the Executive Schedule in the order in which they shall have taken the oath as such officers.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

The President may at any time, pursuant to law but without regard to the foregoing provisions of this Order, direct that an officer specified by the President shall act as Secretary of State.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Executive Order No. 10839 is revoked. RONALD REAGAN The White House, January 27, 1982. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:34 a.m., January 28, 1982]

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

Revokes Executive Order 13251—Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of State
George W. Bush • 2001-12-28
📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 12,343 (Jan. 27, 1982), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12343-designation-certain-officers-act-secretary-state.