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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 6632 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 6632—Creation of the National Recovery Review Board

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Wednesday, March 7, 1934
•
2 min read (352 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (352 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby establish an organization which shall be known as the National Recovery Review Board.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 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 Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 7, 1934, this order concerns Creation of the National Recovery Review Board. I hereby establish an organization which shall be known as the National Recovery Review Board. The following persons are hereby appointed to serve as members of the said Board: Clarence Darrow W. W. Neal Fred P. Mann, Sr. John F. Sinclair Samuel C. Henry W. O. Thompson The duties and functions of the National Recovery Review Board shall be as follows: (1) To ascertain and report to the President whether any code or…

Constitutional Assessment: Evaluated against the Fifth Amendment, this action touches upon property or economic rights. An early statesman would insist upon strict adherence to due process of law and the constitutional guarantee that private holdings shall not be encumbered or taken for public purposes without just compensation and lawful process.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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I hereby establish an organization which shall be known as the National Recovery Review Board.

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The following persons are hereby appointed to serve as members of the said Board: Clarence Darrow W. W. Neal Fred P. Mann, Sr. John F. Sinclair Samuel C. Henry W. O. Thompson The duties and functions of the National Recovery Review Board shall be as follows: (1) To ascertain and report to the President whether any code or codes of fair competition approved under the authority of title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act are designed to promote monopolies or to eliminate or oppress small enterprises or operate to discriminate against them, or will permit monopolies or monopolistic practices, and if it finds in the affirmative to specify in its reports wherein such results follow from the adoption and operation of any such code or…

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To recommend to the President such changes in any approved code or codes as, in the opinion of the Board, will rectify or eliminate such results.

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The members of said Board shall receive as compensation for their services $25 per day for the time they are engaged, respectively, in the performance of their duties, together with such expenses as may be allowed by law to officers and employees of the regular establishments of the Government; and the said Board may, without regard to the provisions of the civil service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, or the provisions of Executive Order No. 6440, as amended, appoint and fix the compensation and prescribe the duties of such clerical, technical, and legal personnel as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Government Operations & Civil Service
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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 purse and the sword ought never to be in the same hands... nor the liberties of the citizen placed at the pleasure of a single magistrate." — Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)

George Mason and the Anti-Federalists would sound a fierce warning. They feared that Article II would inevitably evolve into an elective monarchy. When an executive order impacts private rights, property, or civil liberties without individualized judicial process, Mason would see their darkest predictions verified.

Anti-Federalist Stance: High Bill of Rights Scrutiny
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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
35 / 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

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

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
352
2,078 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
15.7
College Level
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 under the provisions of title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 (ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195), and in order to effectuate the purposes of said title, I hereby establish an organization which shall be known as the National Recovery Review Board. The following persons are hereby appointed to serve as members of the said Board: Clarence Darrow W. W. Neal Fred P. Mann, Sr. John F. Sinclair Samuel C. Henry W. O. Thompson The duties and functions of the National Recovery Review Board shall be as follows: (1) To ascertain and report to the President whether any code or codes of fair competition approved under the authority of title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act are designed to promote monopolies or to eliminate or oppress small enterprises or operate to discriminate against them, or will permit monopolies or monopolistic practices, and if it finds in the affirmative to specify in its reports wherein such results follow from the adoption and operation of any such code or codes. (2) To recommend to the President such changes in any approved code or codes as, in the opinion of the Board, will rectify or eliminate such results. The members of said Board shall receive as compensation for their services $25 per day for the time they are engaged, respectively, in the performance of their duties, together with such expenses as may be allowed by law to officers and employees of the regular establishments of the Government; and the said Board may, without regard to the provisions of the civil service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, or the provisions of Executive Order No. 6440, as amended, appoint and fix the compensation and prescribe the duties of such clerical, technical, and legal personnel as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The facilities and records of the National Recovery Administration shall be available to the Board whenever required in connection with the performance of its duties. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, March 7, 1934.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 6632 (Mar. 7, 1934), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6632-creation-the-national-recovery-review-board.