Executive Order 13120 Constitutional Fidelity (+0.23)

Executive Order 13120—Ordering the Selected Reserve and Certain Individual Ready Reserve Members of the Armed Forces to Active Duty

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Tuesday, April 27, 1999

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1 min read (234 words)

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

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

This executive order, signed by President William J. Clinton on 1999-04-27, establishes federal administrative policy concerning "Ordering the Selected Reserve and Certain Individual Ready Reserve Members of the Armed Forces to Active Duty." It is a direct, concise executive instruction delivering focused administrative or military commands to department leadership.

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

▪ By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active armed forces of the United States for the effective conduct of operations in and around the former Yugoslavia related to the conflict in Kosovo.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Total Words

234

1,404 characters

Estimated Read Time

1 min

@ 200 words / min

Flesch-Kincaid

20.6

Post-Grad reading level

Constitutional Polarity

+0.23

Framers' Alignment index

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 13120, William J. Clinton (Apr 27, 1999). Available at https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-13120-ordering-the-selected-reserve-and-certain-individual-ready-reserve.

Official Document Text

Source: The American Presidency Project (UCSB Archive)

Original Source →

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active armed forces of the United States for the effective conduct of operations in and around the former Yugoslavia related to the conflict in Kosovo. Further, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize 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, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit, of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty. 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. William J. Clinton The White House, April 27, 1999. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 28, 1999]