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Executive Order 6758 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 6758—Including Positions in the Farm Credit Administration in the Classified Civil Service

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Friday, June 29, 1934
•
2 min read (439 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (439 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

All positions in the Farm Credit Administration are hereby included in the classified civil service and appointments thereto will hereafter be made in accordance with civil-service laws and rules, except as hereinafter provided. 2.

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
Sovereign State Governments & Localities 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 June 29, 1934, this order concerns Including Positions in the Farm Credit Administration in the Classified Civil Service. All positions in the Farm Credit Administration are hereby included in the classified civil service and appointments thereto will hereafter be made in accordance with civil-service laws and rules, except as hereinafter provided. 2.

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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All positions in the Farm Credit Administration are hereby included in the classified civil service and appointments thereto will hereafter be made in accordance with civil-service laws and rules, except as hereinafter provided. 2.

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The provisions of this order are not intended to affect the authority of the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration to appoint such employees as may be necessary for the administration of emergency crop production loans under act of February 23, 1934, or to appoint and fix the salaries of experts and attorneys in accordance with section 4 of the Agricultural Marketing Act and Executive Order No. 5248, dated December 28, 1929, as amended by Executive Order No. 6134, dated May 18, 1933, or the authority of the Land Bank Commissioner to make appointments under section 1017, title 12, of the United States Code. 3.

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Incumbents of positions affected by this order who do not already possess a classified civil-service status shall not acquire such status by reason of the provisions of the preceding paragraphs.

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However, incumbents employed in such positions on June 1, 1934, may be appointed to the classified civil service if, prior to June 1, 1935, after recommendation by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, they pass such noncompetitive tests of fitness as the Civil Service Commission may prescribe.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Agriculture 🏷️ 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
43 / 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

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

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%).
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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
439
2,743 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
18
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

Whereas by Executive Order No. 6084, dated March 27, 1933, the Farm Credit Administration was created by changing the name of the Federal Farm Board to the Farm Credit Administration and transferring thereto the functions and personnel of certain other Governmental agencies dealing with agricultural credit; and Whereas by virtue of such transfer and of the fact that the Federal Farm Board was subject to civil-service laws and rules, most classes of positions in the Farm Credit Administration are now subject to such laws and rules; and Whereas under Executive Order No. 6134, dated May 18, 1933, employees of the various agencies constituting the Farm Credit Administration who were employed therein on May 27, 1933, became eligible, upon recommendation by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, to acquire civil-service status by noncompetitive examination; and Whereas it is desirable, in the interest of good administration, that standards of selection and compensation of employees of the Farm Credit Administration be uniform and that employees in similar positions enjoy equal rights: Now, Therefore , by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Civil Service Act of January 16, 1883 (ch. 27, 22 Stat. 403, 404), and section 1753 of the Revised Statutes (5 U.S.C., sec. 631), it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. All positions in the Farm Credit Administration are hereby included in the classified civil service and appointments thereto will hereafter be made in accordance with civil-service laws and rules, except as hereinafter provided. 2. The provisions of this order are not intended to affect the authority of the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration to appoint such employees as may be necessary for the administration of emergency crop production loans under act of February 23, 1934, or to appoint and fix the salaries of experts and attorneys in accordance with section 4 of the Agricultural Marketing Act and Executive Order No. 5248, dated December 28, 1929, as amended by Executive Order No. 6134, dated May 18, 1933, or the authority of the Land Bank Commissioner to make appointments under section 1017, title 12, of the United States Code. 3. Incumbents of positions affected by this order who do not already possess a classified civil-service status shall not acquire such status by reason of the provisions of the preceding paragraphs. However, incumbents employed in such positions on June 1, 1934, may be appointed to the classified civil service if, prior to June 1, 1935, after recommendation by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, they pass such noncompetitive tests of fitness as the Civil Service Commission may prescribe. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, June 29, 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 7737—Authorizing the Appointment of Mrs. Mary G. Bird to a Position in the Farm Credit Administration Without Regard to the Civil Service Rules
Franklin D. Roosevelt • 1937-11-06
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 6758 (June 29, 1934), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6758-including-positions-the-farm-credit-administration-the-classified.