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Executive Order 7503 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 7503—Amending and Correcting Description of Boundaries of Kuwaaohe Military Reservation, Hawaii

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Thursday, December 3, 1936
•
3 min read (572 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (572 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The description of the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation be, and it is hereby, amended and corrected to read as follows: Beginning at monument No. 7, which la a brass plate in rock, from which the azimuth (measured clockwise from true south) and distance to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey triangulation station "Mokapu" is 174°54'00", 423.45 feet.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners
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 3, 1936, this order concerns Amending and Correcting Description of Boundaries of Kuwaaohe Military Reservation, Hawaii. The description of the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation be, and it is hereby, amended and corrected to read as follows: Beginning at monument No. 7, which la a brass plate in rock, from which the azimuth (measured clockwise from true south) and distance to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey triangulation station "Mokapu" is 174°54'00", 423.45 feet.

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 description of the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation be, and it is hereby, amended and corrected to read as follows: Beginning at monument No. 7, which la a brass plate in rock, from which the azimuth (measured clockwise from true south) and distance to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey triangulation station "Mokapu" is 174°54'00", 423.45 feet.

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Thence from said initial point by true azimuths and distances as follows: 54°57'30", 4464.00 feet, to concrete monument No. 1; 65°56'00", 2379.59 feet to concrete monument No. 2; 65°56'00", 154.41 feet to the east boundary of Territorial 40 foot road right of way; On a curve to the left along said right of way, with a radius of 1452.70 feet, 539.26 feet along the curve, the chord of which bears 116°25'04", 536.17 feet; 105°47'00", 555.24 feet along the same to monument No. 3, which is a brass plate; 230°25'40", 5118.30 feet to concrete monument No. 4, an intermediate concrete monument "A" being placed in line 904.10 feet from end of course; 206°57'30", 285 feet, more or less, to high water Une of the Pacific Ocean and along said high…

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No. 5 being 206°57'30", 574.50 feet; Along the said high water line of the Pacific Ocean 13,500 feet, more or less, to a point which is normal to same through monument No. 6, which is a brass plate located in the northerly rim of the Ulupau Crater, near "Kaheklii's Leap"; Southerly along said line normal to shore to said monument No. 6, the direct azimuth and distance from monument No. 5 to monument No. 6 being 251°09'00", 4802.10 feet; Along the dividing lie of the northwest rim of the Ulupau Crater 3300 feet, more or less, to the point of beginning.

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The direct azimuth and distance from monument No. 6 to monument No. 7 being 39°52'00", 2758.50 feet; The tract as described contains an area of 322.5 acres, more or less, as shown on Map No. 11-1-3F36 entitled "Kuwaaohe Military Reservation", scale 1 in.=500 feet, dated June 3, 1936, on file in the office of the Department Engineer, Fort Shafter

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ National Security & Defense
🏛️

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

"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
31 / 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

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

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
572
3,328 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
8
Grade 8
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
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Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS by Executive Order No. 2900 of July 2, 1918, as amended by Executive Order No. 4535 of October 29, 1926, certain lands situated on the Mokapu Peninsula, Kaneohe, District of Koolaupoko, Island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, were withdrawn and set aside for military purposes subject to private rights and to all public roads and rights-of-way therein, which lands comprise the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation; and WHEREAS the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii by Executive Order No. 703 of March 17, 1936, set aside for an addition to the said military reservation a portion of the Territorial Fish and Game Reservation comprising 0.528 acre, situate between the south boundary of the military reservation and the realignment of the Mokapu Road; and WHEREAS a recent survey has developed discrepancies in the description of the boundaries of the said military reservation as contained in the said Executive Order of July 2, 1918, as amended:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 91 of the act of April 30, 1900, 31 Stat. 141, 159, as amended by section 7 of the act of May 27, 1910, 36 Stat. 443, 447, it is ordered that the description of the Kuwaaohe Military Reservation be, and it is hereby, amended and corrected to read as follows: Beginning at monument No. 7, which la a brass plate in rock, from which the azimuth (measured clockwise from true south) and distance to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey triangulation station "Mokapu" is 174°54'00", 423.45 feet. Thence from said initial point by true azimuths and distances as follows: 54°57'30", 4464.00 feet, to concrete monument No. 1; 65°56'00", 2379.59 feet to concrete monument No. 2; 65°56'00", 154.41 feet to the east boundary of Territorial 40 foot road right of way; On a curve to the left along said right of way, with a radius of 1452.70 feet, 539.26 feet along the curve, the chord of which bears 116°25'04", 536.17 feet; 105°47'00", 555.24 feet along the same to monument No. 3, which is a brass plate; 230°25'40", 5118.30 feet to concrete monument No. 4, an intermediate concrete monument "A" being placed in line 904.10 feet from end of course; 206°57'30", 285 feet, more or less, to high water Une of the Pacific Ocean and along said high water line to monument No. 5, the direct azimuth and distance from monument No. 4 to monument. No. 5 being 206°57'30", 574.50 feet; Along the said high water line of the Pacific Ocean 13,500 feet, more or less, to a point which is normal to same through monument No. 6, which is a brass plate located in the northerly rim of the Ulupau Crater, near "Kaheklii's Leap"; Southerly along said line normal to shore to said monument No. 6, the direct azimuth and distance from monument No. 5 to monument No. 6 being 251°09'00", 4802.10 feet; Along the dividing lie of the northwest rim of the Ulupau Crater 3300 feet, more or less, to the point of beginning. The direct azimuth and distance from monument No. 6 to monument No. 7 being 39°52'00", 2758.50 feet; The tract as described contains an area of 322.5 acres, more or less, as shown on Map No. 11-1-3F36 entitled "Kuwaaohe Military Reservation", scale 1 in.=500 feet, dated June 3, 1936, on file in the office of the Department Engineer, Fort Shafter, T.H. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

December 3, 1936.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 7503 (Dec. 3, 1936), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7503-amending-and-correcting-description-boundaries-kuwaaohe-military.