Executive Order 12728 Constitutional Fidelity (+0.23)
Executive Order 12728—Delegating the President's Authority To Suspend any Provision of Law Relating to the Promotion, Retirement, or Separation of Members of the Armed Forces
Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.
This executive order, signed by President George Bush on 1990-08-22, establishes federal administrative policy concerning "Delegating the President's Authority To Suspend any Provision of Law Relating to the Promotion, Retirement, or Separation of Members of the Armed Forces." It outlines operative directives for executive department officers, delegating enforcement responsibilities and establishing official governance guidelines.
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
▪Formal executive instruction issued by the President establishing official administrative policy on Delegating the President's Authority To Suspend any Provision of Law Relating to the Promotion, Retirement, or Separation of Members of the Armed Forces.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
Total Words
268
1,571 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
25.7
Post-Grad reading level
Constitutional Polarity
+0.23
Framers' Alignment index
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 12728, George Bush (Aug 22, 1990). Available at https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12728-delegating-the-presidents-authority-suspend-any-provision-law.
Official Document Text
Source: The American Presidency Project (UCSB Archive)
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 673c of title 10 of the United States Code and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby order: Section 1. The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Transportation with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Department of the Navy, are hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority vested in the President by section 673c of title 10 of the United States Code (1) to suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces determined to be essential to the national security of the United States, and (2) to determine, for the purposes of said section, that members of the armed forces are essential to the national security of the United States. Sec. 2. The authority delegated to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Transportation by this order may be redelegated and further subdelegated to subordinates who are appointed to their offices by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Sec. 3. This order is intended only to improve the internal management of the executive branch and is not intended to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person. George Bush The White House, August 22, 1990.
