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Executive Order 7252 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 7252—Terminating the National Recovery Administration and Transferring Certain Agencies and Functions Thereof to the Departments of Commerce and Labor

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Saturday, December 21, 1935
•
2 min read (431 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (431 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The National Recovery Administration and the office of Administrator thereof are hereby terminated. 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
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 December 21, 1935, this order concerns Terminating the National Recovery Administration and Transferring Certain Agencies and Functions Thereof to the Departments of Commerce and Labor. The National Recovery Administration and the office of Administrator thereof are hereby terminated. 2. The Division of Review, the Division of Business Cooperation, and the Advisory Council, as constituted by Executive Order No. 7075 of June 15, 1935, together with all of their officers and employees, files, records, equipment, and property of every kind, are hereby transferred to the Department of Commerce.

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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The National Recovery Administration and the office of Administrator thereof are hereby terminated. 2.

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The Division of Review, the Division of Business Cooperation, and the Advisory Council, as constituted by Executive Order No. 7075 of June 15, 1935, together with all of their officers and employees, files, records, equipment, and property of every kind, are hereby transferred to the Department of Commerce.

▪

The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and directed, under the general direction of the President, to appoint, employ, discharge, and fix the compensation and define the duties and direct the conduct of all officers and employees engaged in the administration of the agencies transferred by this Order to the Department of Commerce, to exercise and perform in connection with the said agencies the functions and duties now exercised and performed, or authorized to be exercised and performed, by the National Recovery Administration, to report to the President on all matters relating thereto, and to terminate the functions and duties of the said agencies not later than April 1, 1936. 3.

▪

The Consumers' Division, established within the National Recovery Administration by Executive Order No. 7120 of July 30, 1935, together with all of its officers and employees, files, records, equipment, and property of every kind, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

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

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment 🏷️ 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
42 / 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

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
431
2,723 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
17.5
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 Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act (48 Stat. 195), as amended by Senate Joint Resolution 113, approved June 14, 1935, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. The National Recovery Administration and the office of Administrator thereof are hereby terminated. 2. The Division of Review, the Division of Business Cooperation, and the Advisory Council, as constituted by Executive Order No. 7075 of June 15, 1935, together with all of their officers and employees, files, records, equipment, and property of every kind, are hereby transferred to the Department of Commerce. The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and directed, under the general direction of the President, to appoint, employ, discharge, and fix the compensation and define the duties and direct the conduct of all officers and employees engaged in the administration of the agencies transferred by this Order to the Department of Commerce, to exercise and perform in connection with the said agencies the functions and duties now exercised and performed, or authorized to be exercised and performed, by the National Recovery Administration, to report to the President on all matters relating thereto, and to terminate the functions and duties of the said agencies not later than April 1, 1936. 3. The Consumers' Division, established within the National Recovery Administration by Executive Order No. 7120 of July 30, 1935, together with all of its officers and employees, files, records, equipment, and property of every kind, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor. The Secretary of Labor is authorized and directed, under the general direction of the President, to appoint, employ, discharge, and fix the compensation and define the duties and direct the conduct of all officers and employees as may be engaged in the administration of the said Consumers' Division, to exercise and perform in connection with said Consumers' Division the functions and duties now exercised and performed, or authorized to be exercised and performed, by the National Recovery Administration, and to report to the President on all matters relating thereto. 4. No person transferred by this Order shall by such transfer acquire a civil service status. Any new appointments under this Order may be made without regard to the Civil Service Rules and Regulations. 5. All Orders and Regulations heretofore issued concerning the administration of Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act, as amended, are hereby modified to the extent necessary to make this Order fully effective. 6. This Order shall become effective on January 1, 1936. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, December 21, 1935.

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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 7323—Creating a Committee to Complete the Summary of the Results and Accomplishments of the National Recovery Administration and Report Thereon
Franklin D. Roosevelt • 1936-03-26
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 7252 (Dec. 21, 1935), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7252-terminating-the-national-recovery-administration-and-transferring.