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Executive Order 7387 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 7387—Reservation of Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone

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Monday, June 15, 1936
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3 min read (592 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (592 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The following-described land situated in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a naval reservation, which shall be known as Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy, except that it shall be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone authorities in conformity with the provisions of the said Canal Zone Code: Beginning at a concrete monument, marked "G" on Panama Canal drawing L 6103-62, located at the extreme high-water mark on the shore of Panama Bay, the geographic position of which (referred to Panama-Colon datum of the Canal Zone triangulation system) is in latitude 8°56' plus 3653.4 feet N. and…

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Sovereign State Governments & Localities

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 15, 1936, this order concerns Reservation of Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone. The following-described land situated in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a naval reservation, which shall be known as Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy, except that it shall be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone authorities in conformity with the provisions of…

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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The following-described land situated in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a naval reservation, which shall be known as Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy, except that it shall be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone authorities in conformity with the provisions of the said Canal Zone Code: Beginning at a concrete monument, marked "G" on Panama Canal drawing L 6103-62, located at the extreme high-water mark on the shore of Panama Bay, the geographic position of which (referred to Panama-Colon datum of the Canal Zone triangulation system) is in latitude 8°56' plus 3653.4 feet N. and…

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This order supersedes Executive Order No. 4047 of July 8, 1924, and Executive Order No. 4105 of November 22, 1924, setting apart and assigning certain sites in the Canal Zone to the uses and purposes of naval reservations.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities
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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)
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"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

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

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
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%).
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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
592
3,320 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
7.9
Grade 8
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 of Title n of the Canal Zone Code, approved June 19, 1934, and as President of the United States, the following-described land situated in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a naval reservation, which shall be known as Naval Station, Balboa, Canal Zone, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy, except that it shall be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone authorities in conformity with the provisions of the said Canal Zone Code: Beginning at a concrete monument, marked "G" on Panama Canal drawing L 6103-62, located at the extreme high-water mark on the shore of Panama Bay, the geographic position of which (referred to Panama-Colon datum of the Canal Zone triangulation system) is in latitude 8°56' plus 3653.4 feet N. and longitude 79°33' plus 1518.0 feet W.; thence S. 37°40' W., a distance of 828.8 feet through an iron rail in concrete monument, 63.8 feet from beginning of course, marked "V" on the map, to an iron rail In concrete monument, marked "Z" on the map (this line corresponds with a part of the north-western boundary of Fort Amador); thence N. 52°20' W., a distance of 1286.0 feet through concrete monument, 635.3 feet from beginning of course marked "C" on the map, and an iron rail in concrete, 1049.9 feet from beginning of course, marked "W" on the map, to a concrete monument, marked "H" on the map; thence N. 11°10' E., a distance of 442.5 feet to a concrete monument, marked "I" on the map; thence N. 68°37' E., a distance of 91.3 feet to a concrete monument, marked "J" on the map; thence N. 21°23' W., a distance of 1120.3 feet through concrete monuments, marked "K" and "L" on the map, 370.0 feet and 740.0 feet, respectively, from beginning of course, to a concrete monument, marked "M" on the map; thence N. 68?37' E., a distance of 400.0 feet to a concrete monument, marked "N" on the map, located 28.0 feet westerly and at right angles from the center line of the pavement of Amador Road; thence S. 21°23' E., a distance of 1120.3 feet, parallel to and at a distance of 28.0 feet from the center line of the pavement of Amador Road, to a concrete monument, marked "O" on the map; thence N. 68°37' E., a distance of 388.2 feet through an iron rail in concrete monument, 35.0 feet from end of course, marked "Y" on the map, to a point marked "P" on the map, located at the extreme high-water mark on the shore of Panama Bay; thence S. 35°01' E., a distance of 1080.0 feet to monument "G" on the map which is the point of beginning. The direction of the lines refers to the true meridian. The above-described tract contains an area of 40.84 acres. All of the above-described area is shown on Panama Canal drawing L 6103-62 of November 27, 1935, entitled "Boundary of Balboa Naval Station", showing approval by the Governor of the Panama Canal, and by the Commandant, Fifteenth Naval District, in whose offices the drawing is filed. This order supersedes Executive Order No. 4047 of July 8, 1924, and Executive Order No. 4105 of November 22, 1924, setting apart and assigning certain sites in the Canal Zone to the uses and purposes of naval reservations. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

June 15, 1936.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 7387 (June 15, 1936), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7387-reservation-naval-station-balboa-canal-zone.