ALASKA It is hereby ordered that the land hereinafter described, which is a part of the tract reserved for the use of the Office of Education by Executive Order No. 5391, dated July 8, 1930, be, and the same is hereby, placed under the control of the Secretary of War for the use of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System: Beginning at a point in the northerly boundary line of tract heretofore set aside, said point bearing due north 132 ft. from the northeast corner of the boys' dormitory, known as Warren Hall; thence east 132 ft.; thence south 792 ft.; thence west 924 ft.; thence north 792 ft.; thence east 792 ft. to the point of beginning, together with necessary right-of-way for ingress and egress thereto, subject to a right-of-way across the tract for the Office of Indian Affairs from the "Pump House" to its buildings on the adjoining tract and the free passage of Indian Office employees and the laying of pipe lines to carry water from the pump house to the buildings on the adjoining tract. This order shall continue in full force and effect unless and until revoked by the President or by act of Congress. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, May 2, 1933.
Executive Order 6118 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 6118—Transferring Control of Certain Land to the Secretary of War
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 1 min read (210 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
The land hereinafter described, which is a part of the tract reserved for the use of the Office of Education by Executive Order No. 5391, dated July 8, 1930, be, and the same is hereby, placed under the control of the Secretary of War for the use of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System: Beginning at a point in the northerly boundary line of tract heretofore set aside, said point bearing due north 132 ft. from the northeast corner of the boys' dormitory, known as Warren Hall; thence east 132 ft.; thence south 792 ft.; thence west 924 ft.; thence north 792 ft.; thence east 792 ft. to the point of beginning, together with necessary right-of-way for ingress and egress thereto, subject to a right-of-way across the tract…
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments
Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis
Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 2, 1933, this order concerns Transferring Control of Certain Land to the Secretary of War. The land hereinafter described, which is a part of the tract reserved for the use of the Office of Education by Executive Order No. 5391, dated July 8, 1930, be, and the same is hereby, placed under the control of the Secretary of War for the use of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System: Beginning at a point in the northerly boundary line of tract heretofore set aside, said point bearing due…
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
▪
The land hereinafter described, which is a part of the tract reserved for the use of the Office of Education by Executive Order No. 5391, dated July 8, 1930, be, and the same is hereby, placed under the control of the Secretary of War for the use of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System: Beginning at a point in the northerly boundary line of tract heretofore set aside, said point bearing due north 132 ft. from the northeast corner of the boys' dormitory, known as Warren Hall; thence east 132 ft.; thence south 792 ft.; thence west 924 ft.; thence north 792 ft.; thence east 792 ft. to the point of beginning, together with necessary right-of-way for ingress and egress thereto, subject to a right-of-way across the tract…
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
Policy Areas & Topics
🏛️
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating 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
"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
31 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
Low Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
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
Moderate Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.
Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment
Low Friction
Federalism & State Sovereignty
Confined strictly to internal federal jurisdiction, federal property, or direct military command.
Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments
Low Friction
Due Process & Individual Rights
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
Moderate Friction
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
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%).
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
210
1,194 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
9.6
High School
Text size:
Related Executive Orders
1 order cited directly in this text, plus related actions from this administration.
EO 5391 Jul 8, 1930
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 5391—Reservation of Public Lands for Educational Purposes
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
Pending survey and segregation by the General Land Office the following tracts of land at Chitina, Point Hope, and Kanakanak, Alaska, on which the Office of Education, Department of the Interior, has erected school buildings, be, and they are hereby, reserved and set apart for…
Herbert Hoover Grade 6 • 3m
EO 6125 May 2, 1933
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 6125—Public Water Restoration No. 75
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
So much of Executive orders of April 28, 1917, creating Public Water Reserve No. 49; of February 8, 1923, creating Public Water Reserve No. 86; and of December 5, 1913, creating Public Water Reserve No. 12, as affects the land hereinafter listed is hereby revoked, and all such…
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 6124 May 2, 1933
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 6124—Withdrawal of Public Lands for Resurvey
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The public lands in Tps. 9 and 10 N., R. 76 W. of the sixth principal meridian, Colorado, be, and the same are hereby, withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, entry, and all forms of appropriation, pending a resurvey of said townships under the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat.…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 9 • 1m
EO 6123 May 2, 1933
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 6123—Withdrawal of Public Lands for Resurvey
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The public lands in T. 4 N., R. 78 W. of the sixth principal meridian, Colorado, be, and the same are hereby, withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, entry, and all forms of appropriation, pending a resurvey of said township under the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 845).
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 6122 May 2, 1933
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 6122—Withdrawal of Public Lands for Resurvey
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The public lands in T. 1 S., R. 83 W. of the sixth principal meridian, Colorado, be, and the same are hereby, withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, entry, and all forms of appropriation, pending a resurvey of said township under the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 845).
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 6121 May 2, 1933
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 6121—Partial Revocation of Withdrawal of Public Lands
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Executive Order No. 5408 of July 25, 1930, withdrawing certain lands in California for classification and determination as to the advisability of including such lands in a national monument, be, and it is hereby, revoked as to such of the lands so withdrawn as were not reserved…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 6118 (May 2, 1933), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6118-transferring-control-certain-land-the-secretary-war.
