★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 13117 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.23) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 13117—Further Amendment to Executive Order 12981, as Amended

William J. Clinton William J. Clinton
•
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
•
1 min read (237 words)
•
64 Fed. Reg. 16591

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 1 min read (237 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order 12981, as amended ("Executive Order 12981"), is further amended as follows: Section 1.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments 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 William J. Clinton on March 31, 1999, this order concerns Further Amendment to Executive Order 12981, as Amended. Executive Order 12981, as amended ("Executive Order 12981"), is further amended as follows: Section 1. The second sentence of section 1 of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency". Sec. 2.

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

▪

Executive Order 12981, as amended ("Executive Order 12981"), is further amended as follows: Section 1.

▪

The second sentence of section 1 of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency".

▪

The second sentence of section 5(a)(1)(A) of Executive Order 12981 is amended by adding "and" after "the Secretary of Defense" and before "the Secretary of Energy," and deleting ", and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency." Sec. 3.

▪

The first sentence of section 5(a)(2) of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency." Sec. 4.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Trade & Tariffs
🏛️

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: 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
📐

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
32 / 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

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
237
1,436 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
15.1
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.23
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (5 sections)
Sec. 1Sec. 2Sec. 3Sec. 4Sec. 5

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America and in order to further the implementation of the reorganization of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) into the Department of State, in this instance by eliminating ACDA's vote on dual-use export license decisions in the administration of export controls, it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12981, as amended ("Executive Order 12981"), is further amended as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

The second sentence of section 1 of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency".

Sec. 2. #sec-2

The second sentence of section 5(a)(1)(A) of Executive Order 12981 is amended by adding "and" after "the Secretary of Defense" and before "the Secretary of Energy," and deleting ", and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency."

Sec. 3. #sec-3

The first sentence of section 5(a)(2) of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency."

Sec. 4. #sec-4

The second sentence of section 5(a)(3)(A) of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting ", and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency."

Sec. 5. #sec-5

The first sentence of section 6 of Executive Order 12981 is amended by deleting "and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency". William J. Clinton The White House, March 31, 1999. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 2, 1999]

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 13,117, 64 Fed. Reg. 16,591 (Mar. 31, 1999).