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Executive Order 6299 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 6299—Revised Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry

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Friday, September 29, 1933
•
2 min read (427 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (427 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

A Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry was approved by an Executive order dated September 18, 1933, subject to certain conditions including a condition that basic minimum rates not fixed in schedule "A", as attached to the code, might be approved or prescribed by the President at any time prior to the effective date of the code, which provision was also incorporated in the code in said schedule "A".

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People

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 September 29, 1933, this order concerns Revised Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry. A Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry was approved by an Executive order dated September 18, 1933, subject to certain conditions including a condition that basic minimum rates not fixed in schedule "A", as attached to the code, might be approved or prescribed by the President at any time prior to the effective date of the code, which provision was also incorporated in the code in said schedule…

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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A Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry was approved by an Executive order dated September 18, 1933, subject to certain conditions including a condition that basic minimum rates not fixed in schedule "A", as attached to the code, might be approved or prescribed by the President at any time prior to the effective date of the code, which provision was also incorporated in the code in said schedule "A".

▪

Following said Executive order of September 18th further consideration has been given to said basic minimum rates and said schedule "A" has been revised so as to include additional rates, either agreed upon and submitted for approval, or recommended as those which should be prescribed by the President.

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The association and groups of coal producers and individual coal producers submitting said code for the approval of the President, also authorized the Administrator to make such minor changes as might be desirable to improve its language without substantially altering the substance thereof.

▪

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt , President of the United States, pursuant to the authority vested in me by title I of the National Recovery Act, approved June 16, 1933, and otherwise, and upon the recommendation of the Administrator do order that— (1) Schedule "A", as revised and attached to this order, is hereby approved as the schedule of basic minimum rates approved or prescribed by the President and incorporated in the Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry, as provided in article IV of said code.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People
🏛️

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 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
34 / 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

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

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

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
427
2,654 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
21.8
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

A Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry was approved by an Executive order dated September 18, 1933, subject to certain conditions including a condition that basic minimum rates not fixed in schedule "A", as attached to the code, might be approved or prescribed by the President at any time prior to the effective date of the code, which provision was also incorporated in the code in said schedule "A". Following said Executive order of September 18th further consideration has been given to said basic minimum rates and said schedule "A" has been revised so as to include additional rates, either agreed upon and submitted for approval, or recommended as those which should be prescribed by the President. The association and groups of coal producers and individual coal producers submitting said code for the approval of the President, also authorized the Administrator to make such minor changes as might be desirable to improve its language without substantially altering the substance thereof. Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt , President of the United States, pursuant to the authority vested in me by title I of the National Recovery Act, approved June 16, 1933, and otherwise, and upon the recommendation of the Administrator do order that— (1) Schedule "A", as revised and attached to this order, is hereby approved as the schedule of basic minimum rates approved or prescribed by the President and incorporated in the Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry, as provided in article IV of said code. (2) In order to correct a typographical error in the code and in the Executive order of September 18th in the two places where the phrase "six members of the Divisional Code Authorities" occurs in article VII, section 4, this shall be corrected to read "five members of the Divisional Code Authorities." (3) In order to provide for the impartial decision of any controversy submitted to the National Bituminous Coal Labor Board there is hereby imposed, as a condition upon the functioning of said Board, that only the impartial and disinterested representatives of the President appointed to the divisional labor boards shall participate in the decisions of the National Bituminous Coal Labor Board, the other members thereof acting only in an advisory capacity. (4) Subject to the conditions of the Executive order of September 18, 1933, and the modification thereof and other provisions of this order, the Code of Fair Competition for the Bituminous Coal Industry is hereby approved. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Approval recommended: Hugh S. Johnson. Administrator. The White House, September 29, 1933.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 6299 (Sept. 29, 1933), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6299-revised-code-fair-competition-for-the-bituminous-coal-industry.