★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 6472 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 6472—Assignment of Frequencies to Government Radio Stations

•
Saturday, December 2, 1933
•
3 min read (513 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (513 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby assign frequencies to Government radio stations and classes of stations as follows: 1.

⚖️ 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 Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

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 December 2, 1933, this order concerns Assignment of Frequencies to Government Radio Stations. I hereby assign frequencies to Government radio stations and classes of stations as follows: 1. The following Government experimental radio stations are authorized to use miscellaneous frequencies from time to time provided no interference is caused with other authorized services: Navy Department: Naval Research Laboratory, Bellevue, D.C. (NKF); Annapolis, Md. (NZO); Quantico, Va. (NZY).

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

▪

I hereby assign frequencies to Government radio stations and classes of stations as follows: 1.

▪

The following Government experimental radio stations are authorized to use miscellaneous frequencies from time to time provided no interference is caused with other authorized services: Navy Department: Naval Research Laboratory, Bellevue, D.C. (NKF); Annapolis, Md. (NZO); Quantico, Va. (NZY).

▪

A Government station may use for a period not exceeding 1 month frequencies other than those assigned to it for the purpose of selecting a frequency more suitable for a particular service before requesting authority for a change in frequency, provided that it first gives notice as to such use to the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, and also to the Federal Radio Commission if the frequency is not assigned by Executive order, and provided further that it will cease operation on notice of interference from the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee or the Federal Radio Commission. 6.

▪

The Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee may authorize any Government radio station to conduct experimental operations upon a frequency assigned to some other Government station by Executive order for such period as the Committee may deem necessary, provided that such station shall cease such operations upon receipt of notice of interference from the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee. 7.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

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

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

"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
33 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

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

Low Friction

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

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

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

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%).
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
513
3,705 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
12.6
High School
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 6 of the Radio Act of 1927 (ch. 169, 44 Stat. 1165; title 47 U.S.C., sec. 86), I hereby assign frequencies to Government radio stations and classes of stations as follows: 1. The following Government experimental radio stations are authorized to use miscellaneous frequencies from time to time provided no interference is caused with other authorized services: Navy Department: Naval Research Laboratory, Bellevue, D.C. (NKF); Annapolis, Md. (NZO); Quantico, Va. (NZY). War Department: Fort Monmouth, N.J. (WLY); Wright Field, Ohio (WZAJ). Department of Commerce: Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. (WWV); Beltsville, Md. (WWV); Meadows, Md. (WWV). 2. The locations given are locations of the transmitting apparatus; and where control points are different, they are given in parentheses. Receiving stations are, in general, located at all transmitting stations and control points. 3. The following independent receiving stations have no transmitters: Army------------Battery Cove, Alexandria, Va.- Control center, Washington, D.C. Do.----------Fort Lawton, Wash-Control center, Seattle, Wash. Navy------------Bellevue, D.C.-Control center, Washington, D.C. Do.----------South San Francisco, Calif.- Control center, San Francisco, Calif. Commerce, Bureau of Standards-----Meadows, Md. Federal Radio Commission.----------Hingham, Mass. Do-------------------------------Baltimore, Md. Do-------------------------------Marietta, Ga. Do-------------------------------San Pedro, Calif. Do-------------------------------Portland, Oreg. Do-------------------------------Great Lakes, Ill. Do-------------------------------Grand Island, Nebr. 4. In cases where more than one agency is using the same frequency the order of listing indicates relative priority. 5. A Government station may use for a period not exceeding 1 month frequencies other than those assigned to it for the purpose of selecting a frequency more suitable for a particular service before requesting authority for a change in frequency, provided that it first gives notice as to such use to the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, and also to the Federal Radio Commission if the frequency is not assigned by Executive order, and provided further that it will cease operation on notice of interference from the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee or the Federal Radio Commission. 6. The Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee may authorize any Government radio station to conduct experimental operations upon a frequency assigned to some other Government station by Executive order for such period as the Committee may deem necessary, provided that such station shall cease such operations upon receipt of notice of interference from the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee. 7. Any frequency authorized by the Federal Radio Commission for ship service may be employed by Government mobile stations when communicating with non-Government stations. 8. Mobile stations of the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard when engaged in exercises may employ any of the frequencies allocated to mobile services, provided they cause no interference with the authorized services operating on the frequencies selected. 9. A non-Government mobile station may operate on a frequency assigned to a Government station in the mobile service when directed to do so by the latter. 10. No department shall close a station no longer needed by it which is serving other Government departments without first giving due notification to the other Government departments concerned. This Executive order supersedes Executive Order No. 5855, of June 6, 1932. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, December 2, 1933.

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 6472 (Dec. 2, 1933), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6472-assignment-frequencies-government-radio-stations.