★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 12367 Amended 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.29) 📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution

Executive Order 12367—President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

•
Tuesday, June 15, 1982
•
3 min read (666 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (666 words) • ● Amended
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Committee shall analyze, and make recommendations to the President and to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities with respect to, (i) ways to promote private sector support for the arts and the humanities, especially at the State and local levels; (ii) the effectiveness of Federal support for the arts and the humanities in stimulating increased private sector support, taking into account the economic needs and problems of the arts and the humanities and their relationship with the private sector; (iii) the planning and coordination of appropriate participation (including productions and projects) in major and historic national events; and (iv) ways to promote the recognition of excellence in…

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

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 June 15, 1982, this order concerns President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. There is established the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The Committee shall be composed of the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Education; the Administrator of General Services; the Director of the Institute of Museum Services; the Director…

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

▪
Functions

The Committee shall analyze, and make recommendations to the President and to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities with respect to, (i) ways to promote private sector support for the arts and the humanities, especially at the State and local levels; (ii) the effectiveness of Federal support for the arts and the humanities in stimulating increased private sector support, taking into account the economic needs and problems of the arts and the humanities and their relationship with the private sector; (iii) the planning and coordination of appropriate participation (including productions and projects) in major and historic national events; and (iv) ways to promote the recognition of excellence in…

▪
Administration

Members of the Committee shall serve without additional compensation for their work on the Committee.

▪
General

Notwithstanding any other Executive Order, the responsibilities of the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, except that of reporting annually to the Congress, which are applicable to the Committee, shall be performed by the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, in accordance with guidelines and procedures established by the Administrator of General Services.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏛️

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

"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: Supportive of Execution
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
46 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

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

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

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

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 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
666
4,251 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
20.1
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.29
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and to establish, in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App. I), an advisory committee to assist in efforts to increase private sector support for the arts and the humanities, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

Establishment. (a) There is established the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The Committee shall be composed of the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Education; the Administrator of General Services; the Director of the Institute of Museum Services; the Director of the International Communication Agency; a member designated by the Secretary of State; and not more than twenty persons who are not full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government ("non-Federal members"), who shall be appointed by the President and shall be selected from among private individuals and State and local public officials who have a demonstrated interest in and commitment to support for the arts or the humanities. In addition, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are each invited to designate a member of the Committee for appointment by the President, and the Librarian of Congress, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the Director of the National Gallery of Art are invited to serve as members of the Committee. (b) The President shall designate a Chairman or Co-Chairmen from among the non-Federal members of the Committee, and may also designate Vice Chairmen from among members of the Committee.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Functions. The Committee shall analyze, and make recommendations to the President and to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities with respect to, (i) ways to promote private sector support for the arts and the humanities, especially at the State and local levels; (ii) the effectiveness of Federal support for the arts and the humanities in stimulating increased private sector support, taking into account the economic needs and problems of the arts and the humanities and their relationship with the private sector; (iii) the planning and coordination of appropriate participation (including productions and projects) in major and historic national events; and (iv) ways to promote the recognition of excellence in the fields of the arts and the humanities. In performing these functions, the Committee shall collect, maintain and make available for appropriate distribution data on the sources and levels of public and private sector support for the arts and the humanities, and on the availability of cultural resources locally. The Committee's functions shall not conflict with the responsibilities of the National Council on the Arts and the National Council on the Humanities.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Administration. (a) Members of the Committee shall serve without additional compensation for their work on the Committee. However, members of the Committee who are not full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government may be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707), to the extent funds are available therefor. (b) Any administrative support or other expenses of the Committee shall be paid, to the extent permitted by law, from funds available to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

General. (a) Notwithstanding any other Executive Order, the responsibilities of the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, except that of reporting annually to the Congress, which are applicable to the Committee, shall be performed by the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, in accordance with guidelines and procedures established by the Administrator of General Services. (b) The Committee shall terminate on December 31, 1982, unless sooner extended. RONALD REAGAN The White House, June 15, 1982. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:06 a.m., June 16, 1982]

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (6)

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

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 12,367 (June 15, 1982), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12367-presidents-committee-the-arts-and-the-humanities.