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Executive Order 6748 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 6748—Establishing the National Longshoremen's Labor Board

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Tuesday, June 26, 1934

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2 min read (410 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (410 words) • ● In Effect

🎯 Primary Mandate

I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby issue the following Executive order: Section 1.

View all 4 directives ↓

⚖️ Constitutional Footing

⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight

Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence

📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Framers' constitutional debate ↓

🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors

Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Foreign Nations & International Entities

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 June 26, 1934, this order concerns Establishing the National Longshoremen's Labor Board. I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby issue the following Executive order: Section 1. There is hereby created in connection with the Department of Labor a board to be known as the National Longshoremen's Labor Board which shall be composed of the Right Reverend Edward J. Hanna, chairman, O. K. Cushing, and Edward McGrady.

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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I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby issue the following Executive order: Section 1.

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Each member of the Board shall receive necessary traveling and subsistence expenses and each member who, prior to the issuance of this order, was not an officer or employee of the United States shall in addition thereto receive $20 per diem.

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Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment

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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

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

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

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

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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

47 / 100 friction index

Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

High Friction

Touches upon core congressional prerogatives: raises appropriations reallocation, tariff imposition, or statutory preemption questions.

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

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

410

2,474 characters

Estimated Read Time

2 min

@ 200 words / min

Flesch-Kincaid

15.5

College Level

Language Tone Score

+0.02

Constitutional Neutral

How is this scored?

Text size:

Official Archival Text

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📑Sections Outline (4 sections)

Sec. 1 Sec. 2 Sec. 3 Sec. 4

By virtue of the authority vested in me under title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act (48 Stat. 195; U.S.C., title 15, sec. 701) and under a joint resolution approved June 19, 1934 (Public Resolution 44, 73d Cong.), and in order to effectuate said act and joint resolution, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby issue the following Executive order:

Section 1. #sec-1

There is hereby created in connection with the Department of Labor a board to be known as the National Longshoremen's Labor Board which shall be composed of the Right Reverend Edward J. Hanna, chairman, O. K. Cushing, and Edward McGrady. Each member of the Board shall receive necessary traveling and subsistence expenses and each member who, prior to the issuance of this order, was not an officer or employee of the United States shall in addition thereto receive $20 per diem.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

The Board shall have authority to appoint without regard to the provisions of the civil-service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, no more than 15 employees and to incur financial obligations necessary for the proper performance of its duties. Obligations and expenses incurred under the authority of this order shall be paid out of the funds appropriated by the Fourth Deficiency Act, fiscal year 1933, approved June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 274, 275).

Sec. 3. #sec-3

The Board is hereby authorized in connection with the longshoremen's strike on the Pacific Coast and labor problems relating thereto— ( a ) To investigate issues, facts, practices, and activities of employers or employees that are burdening or obstructing, or threatening to burden or obstruct, the free flow of interstate or foreign commerce; and ( b ) To hear, make findings of fact, and take appropriate affirmative action regarding complaints of discrimination against, or discharge of employees; and ( c ) To act as voluntary arbitrator upon request; and ( d ) To exercise all other powers conferred upon a Board established under the authority of Public Resolution 44, Seventy-third Congress; and ( e ) To make a report to the President through the Secretary of Labor of the activities, the findings, the investigations, and the recommendations of the Board.

Sec. 4. #sec-4

The Board shall cease to exist when, in the opinion of the President, it has completed the duties it is authorized to perform. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Approval recommended: FRANCES PERKINS, The Secretary of Labor The White House, June 26, 1934.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

References Executive Order 6915—Changes in the Membership of the National Longshoremen's Labor Board

Franklin D. Roosevelt • 1934-12-06

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 6748 (June 26, 1934), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6748-establishing-the-national-longshoremens-labor-board.