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Executive Order 12510 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 12510—Non-Foreign Area Cost-of-Living Allowances

Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan
•
Wednesday, April 17, 1985
•
2 min read (321 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (321 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Of Executive Order No. 10000 of September 16, 1948, as amended, is further amended to provide as follows: "Sec. 205.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Foreign Nations & International Entities
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 April 17, 1985, this order concerns Non-Foreign Area Cost-of-Living Allowances. Section 205 of Executive Order No. 10000 of September 16, 1948, as amended, is further amended to provide as follows: "Sec. 205. Additional living cost compensation. "(a) The Office of Personnel Management shall from time to time, subject to applicable law, (1) designate places in non-foreign areas eligible to receive additional compensation by virtue of living costs that are substantially higher than in the…

Constitutional Assessment: Evaluated against the Fifth Amendment, this action touches upon property or economic rights. An early statesman would insist upon strict adherence to due process of law and the constitutional guarantee that private holdings shall not be encumbered or taken for public purposes without just compensation and lawful process.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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Of Executive Order No. 10000 of September 16, 1948, as amended, is further amended to provide as follows: "Sec. 205.

▪

"(a) The Office of Personnel Management shall from time to time, subject to applicable law, (1) designate places in non-foreign areas eligible to receive additional compensation by virtue of living costs that are substantially higher than in the Washington, D.C., area, (2) fix for each place so designated an additional rate or rates of compensation by reason of such higher living costs, and (3) prescribe by regulation such additional policies or procedures as may be necessary to administer such compensation.

▪

"(b) In fixing the non-foreign area cost-of-living allowances, the Office of Personnel Management shall make appropriate deductions when quarters or subsistence, or commissary or other purchasing privileges are furnished as a result of Federal civilian employment at a cost substantially lower than the prevailing costs in the allowance area concerned." Sec. 2.

▪

Section 201 of Executive Order No. 10000, as amended, is further amended by deleting "the word 'Territories' means Alaska, Hawaii, the" and inserting in its place "the term 'non-foreign areas' includes Alaska, Hawaii, the territories and".

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment
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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)
§

"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 purse and the sword ought never to be in the same hands... nor the liberties of the citizen placed at the pleasure of a single magistrate." — Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)

George Mason and the Anti-Federalists would sound a fierce warning. They feared that Article II would inevitably evolve into an elective monarchy. When an executive order impacts private rights, property, or civil liberties without individualized judicial process, Mason would see their darkest predictions verified.

Anti-Federalist Stance: High Bill of Rights Scrutiny
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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
35 / 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

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
321
2,077 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
13.1
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (4 sections)
Sec. 1Sec. 2Sec. 3Sec. 4

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution of the United States of America and section 5941 of title 5 of the United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

Section 205 of Executive Order No. 10000 of September 16, 1948, as amended, is further amended to provide as follows: "Sec. 205. Additional living cost compensation. "(a) The Office of Personnel Management shall from time to time, subject to applicable law, (1) designate places in non-foreign areas eligible to receive additional compensation by virtue of living costs that are substantially higher than in the Washington, D.C., area, (2) fix for each place so designated an additional rate or rates of compensation by reason of such higher living costs, and (3) prescribe by regulation such additional policies or procedures as may be necessary to administer such compensation. Additional compensation under this section is referred to as a 'non-foreign area cost-of-living allowance. "(b) In fixing the non-foreign area cost-of-living allowances, the Office of Personnel Management shall make appropriate deductions when quarters or subsistence, or commissary or other purchasing privileges are furnished as a result of Federal civilian employment at a cost substantially lower than the prevailing costs in the allowance area concerned."

Sec. 2. #sec-2

(a) Section 201 of Executive Order No. 10000, as amended, is further amended by deleting "the word 'Territories' means Alaska, Hawaii, the" and inserting in its place "the term 'non-foreign areas' includes Alaska, Hawaii, the territories and". (b) Executive Order No. 10000, as amended, is further amended by deleting "Territorial" and "Territories" wherever they appear and inserting in their place "non-foreign area" and "non-foreign areas", respectively.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Executive Order No. 12070 of June 30, 1978, is hereby superseded.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

This Order shall be effective upon publication in the Federal Register. RONALD REAGAN The White House, April 17, 1985. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:26 a.m., April 18, 1985]

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 12,510 (Apr. 17, 1985), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12510-non-foreign-area-cost-living-allowances.