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Executive Order 7664 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 10th Amend: Intergovernmental Federalism Cooperation

Executive Order 7664—Modifying the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Saturday, July 17, 1937
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3 min read (586 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (586 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

All lands owned or controlled by the United States within the following-described area in Michigan, subject to any existing valid rights, are hereby included in and reserved as a part of the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, established by Executive Order No. 7246 of December 10, 1935: Provided , that any private lands within such area shall become a part of the Refuge upon the acquisition of title thereto or lease thereof by the United States: MICHIGAN MERIDIAN T. 44 N., R. 13 W., Secs. 7 and 18.

View all 3 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 10th Amend: Intergovernmental Federalism Cooperation
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities
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 July 17, 1937, this order concerns Modifying the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. All lands owned or controlled by the United States within the following-described area in Michigan, subject to any existing valid rights, are hereby included in and reserved as a part of the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, established by Executive Order No. 7246 of December 10, 1935: Provided , that any private lands within such area shall become a part of the Refuge upon the acquisition of title thereto or lease…

Constitutional Assessment: Reviewed under the Tenth Amendment and the principle of dual federalism, this order touches upon domains traditionally reserved to the sovereign States. The Framers would caution against any attempt to commandeer state officers or displace local police powers through federal executive fiat.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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All lands owned or controlled by the United States within the following-described area in Michigan, subject to any existing valid rights, are hereby included in and reserved as a part of the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, established by Executive Order No. 7246 of December 10, 1935: Provided , that any private lands within such area shall become a part of the Refuge upon the acquisition of title thereto or lease thereof by the United States: MICHIGAN MERIDIAN T. 44 N., R. 13 W., Secs. 7 and 18.

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The lands excluded from the said Refuge by section 2 hereof shall be and remain under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture.

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The reservation made by section 1 of this order supersedes as to the lands described therein the withdrawal made by Executive Order No. 6964 of February 5, 1935, as amended, for classification and other purposes.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Infrastructure & Transportation
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)
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"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
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: Supportive of Execution
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." — 10th Amendment to the US Constitution (1791)

Mason would scrutinize whether this federal directive intrudes into police powers, land stewardship, or municipal domains historically reserved to local citizens. The Anti-Federalist demand is that federal administration must never supplant state self-governance.

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.

🛡️ High Constitutional Concordance
23 / 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

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates in close harmony with statutory authority and standard Article II supervisory execution.

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
586
3,114 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
7.1
Grade 7
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (4 sections)
Sec. 1Sec. 2Sec. 3Sec. 4

MICHIGAN By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me as President of the United States and by the act of June 25, 1910, ch. 421, 36 Stat. 847, as amended by the act of August 24, 1912, ch. 369, 37 Stat. 497, and In order to effectuate further the purposes of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act (45 Stat. 1222) it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

All lands owned or controlled by the United States within the following-described area in Michigan, subject to any existing valid rights, are hereby included in and reserved as a part of the Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, established by Executive Order No. 7246 of December 10, 1935: Provided , that any private lands within such area shall become a part of the Refuge upon the acquisition of title thereto or lease thereof by the United States: MICHIGAN MERIDIAN T. 44 N., R. 13 W., Secs. 7 and 18. T. 44 N., R. 14 W., Secs. 2 to 6, inclusive; Secs. 8 to 17, inclusive; Secs. 20 to 23, inclusive; Secs. 26 to 29, inclusive; Secs. 32 to 35, inclusive. T. 45 N., R. 14 W., Sec. 4, S½; Sec. 5, S½; Sec. 6, lots 3 to 7, inclusive, SE¼NW¼, E½SW¼, and SE¼; Secs. 7 to 9, inclusive; Secs. 16 to 22, inclusive; Secs. 27 to 34, inclusive. T. 44 N., R. 15 W., Secs. 1 to 6, inclusive. T. 45 N., R. 15 W., all. T. 46 N., R. 15 W., Secs. 31 to 36, inclusive. T. 44 N., R. 16 W., Sec. 1, all. T. 45 N., R. 16 W., Secs. 1, 12, 13, 24, 25, and 36. T. 46 N., R. 16 W., Sec. 36, all. (Approximately 66,725 acres.)

Section 2. #sec-2

All lands owned or controlled by the United States within the following-described area in Michigan are hereby excluded from the said Seney Migratory Waterfowl Refuge: MICHIGAN MERIDIAN T. 44 N., R. 13 W., Sec. 4, lots 1 and 2, S½NE¼ and N½SE¼; Sec. 9, E½NE¼ and SE¼SE¼. T. 45 N., R. 13 W., Sec. 4, lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, S½N½, N½SW¼, that part of SW¼SW¼ lying east of the easterly right-of-way boundary of Michigan State Highway No. M-77, SE¼SW¼, and SE¼; Sec. 5, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, S½N½ and that part of E½SE¼ lying east of the easterly right-of-way boundary of Michigan State Highway No. M-77; Sec. 6, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, and S½N½; Sec. 9, NE¼ that part of the lying east of the easterly right-of-way boundary of Michigan State Highway No. M-77, and SE¼; Sec. 16, E½NE¼, and those parts of the W½NE¼, NE¼NW¼, and SE¼ lying east of the easterly right-of-way boundary of Michigan State Highway No. M-77; Sec. 21, that part of the E½NE¼ lying east of the easterly right-of-way boundary of the Michigan State Highway No. M-77. T. 45 N., R. 14 W., Sec. 1, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, and S½N½; Sec. 2, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, and S½N½; Sec. 3, lots 1 to 4, inclusive, and S½N½. (Approximately 3,296 acres.)

Section 3. #sec-3

The lands excluded from the said Refuge by section 2 hereof shall be and remain under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture.

Section 4. #sec-4

The reservation made by section 1 of this order supersedes as to the lands described therein the withdrawal made by Executive Order No. 6964 of February 5, 1935, as amended, for classification and other purposes. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, July 17, 1937.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 7664 (July 17, 1937), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7664-modifying-the-seney-migratory-waterfowl-refuge.