★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 7163 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 7163—Authorising the Attorney General to Revoke Certain Executive Allowances of Claims Filed Under Section 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Act, as Amended, and Directing Him to Institute Suits for Recovery of Moneys and Properties Paid and Delivered Thereunder

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Thursday, August 29, 1935
•
2 min read (417 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (417 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Attorney General of the United States is hereby vested with full power and authority to revoke or vacate any order or orders issued in favor of any claimant or claimants in purported pursuance of section 9 of the said Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which, in his opinion, have been made or allowed without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a result of fraud on the part of any such claimant or any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a residt of collusion of any such claimant, his agent, attorney or representative, with any officer or employee of the United…

View all 2 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
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
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 August 29, 1935, this order concerns Authorising the Attorney General to Revoke Certain Executive Allowances of Claims Filed Under Section 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Act, as Amended, and Directing Him to Institute Suits for Recovery of Moneys and Properties Paid and Delivered Thereunder. The Attorney General of the United States is hereby vested with full power and authority to revoke or vacate any order or orders issued in favor of any claimant or claimants in purported pursuance of section 9 of the said Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which, in his opinion, have been made or allowed without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any…

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

▪

The Attorney General of the United States is hereby vested with full power and authority to revoke or vacate any order or orders issued in favor of any claimant or claimants in purported pursuance of section 9 of the said Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which, in his opinion, have been made or allowed without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a result of fraud on the part of any such claimant or any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a residt of collusion of any such claimant, his agent, attorney or representative, with any officer or employee of the United…

▪

The Attorney General is hereby authorized and directed to institute any suit, counterclaim, or other legal proceeding, at law or in equity, in the name of the Attorney General as successor to the Alien Property Custodian, or in the name of the United States, and to do any other lawful act, deemed necessary by him, for the purpose of reclaiming or recovering moneys and properties paid or delivered to any claimant or claimants as a result of any order or orders issued in purported pursuance of the said section 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which in his opinion have been made without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Immigration & Border Security
🏛️

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
📐

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
30 / 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

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
417
2,368 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
36.7
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 5(a) of the Trading with the Enemy Act, approved October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 411, 415), as amended, it is ordered as follows: 1. The Attorney General of the United States is hereby vested with full power and authority to revoke or vacate any order or orders issued in favor of any claimant or claimants in purported pursuance of section 9 of the said Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which, in his opinion, have been made or allowed without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a result of fraud on the part of any such claimant or any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a residt of collusion of any such claimant, his agent, attorney or representative, with any officer or employee of the United States, with like effect as if the President had personally revoked or vacated such order or orders. 2. The Attorney General is hereby authorized and directed to institute any suit, counterclaim, or other legal proceeding, at law or in equity, in the name of the Attorney General as successor to the Alien Property Custodian, or in the name of the United States, and to do any other lawful act, deemed necessary by him, for the purpose of reclaiming or recovering moneys and properties paid or delivered to any claimant or claimants as a result of any order or orders issued in purported pursuance of the said section 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, which in his opinion have been made without authority of law, or as a result of misrepresentations made by any such claimant or by any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a result of fraud on the part of any such claimant or any authorized representative, agent, or attorney of any such claimant, or as a result of collusion of any such claimant, his agent, attorney, or representative, with any officer or employee of the United States; and the institution by the Attorney General of any such legal proceeding, suit or counterclaim, either at law or in equity, shall be an authorized exercise by him of the power and authority vested in him by paragraph 1 of this order. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, August 29, 1935.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 7163 (Aug. 29, 1935), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7163-authorising-the-attorney-general-revoke-certain-executive-allowances.