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Executive Order 7839 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 7839—Transferring Certain Housing or Slum-Clearance Projects to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Saturday, March 12, 1938

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2 min read (439 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (439 words) • ● In Effect

🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order No. 7732 of October 27, 1937, transferring certain Federal housing or slum-clearance projects from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works to the United States Housing Authority, is hereby revoked in so far as it pertains to or affects the following-described housing or slum-clearance projects in Puerto Rico: (a) Housing Division Project No. H-3600-SJ-A, Official Project No. 52-8384, constructed and being carried out in San Juan, Puerto Rico, pursuant to Presidential Letter No. 880 of October 28, 1935.

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

Private Citizens & Property Owners Public Health & Medical Institutions

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 March 12, 1938, this order concerns Transferring Certain Housing or Slum-Clearance Projects to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration. Executive Order No. 7732 of October 27, 1937, transferring certain Federal housing or slum-clearance projects from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works to the United States Housing Authority, is hereby revoked in so far as it pertains to or affects the following-described housing or slum-clearance projects in Puerto Rico: (a) Housing Division Project No. H-3600-SJ-A, Official Project No. 52-8384…

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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All right, title, and interest held on October 31, 1937, by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in the two above-described projects are hereby transferred to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, together with the following: (a) All assets, contracts, records, and other property held by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works on October 31, 1937, in connection with the above-described projects: Provided, however , that nothing herein shall be construed as impairing or affecting the obligation of the United States under any contracts hereby transferred.

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All funds allocated to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works which were available on October 31, 1937, for the construction and completion of the above-mentioned projects and are not yet expended.

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All employees who are actually serving in Puerto Rico on the effective date of this order and who shall be certified within one month from this date by the Federal Emergency Administrator of Public Works as having been employed in the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in Puerto Rico on October 31, 1937, in connection with the construction or administration of the above-described projects. 3.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Housing

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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

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

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

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

45 / 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

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

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

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

439

2,855 characters

Estimated Read Time

2 min

@ 200 words / min

Flesch-Kincaid

15.4

College Level

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 II of the National Industrial Recovery Act, approved June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 200), and the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, approved April 8, 1935 (49 Stat. 115), and in order to effectuate the purposes of those Acts, it is ordered as follows: 1. Executive Order No. 7732 of October 27, 1937, transferring certain Federal housing or slum-clearance projects from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works to the United States Housing Authority, is hereby revoked in so far as it pertains to or affects the following-described housing or slum-clearance projects in Puerto Rico: (a) Housing Division Project No. H-3600-SJ-A, Official Project No. 52-8384, constructed and being carried out in San Juan, Puerto Rico, pursuant to Presidential Letter No. 880 of October 28, 1935. (b) Housing Division Project No. H-3600-C-A, Official Project No. 52-5353, constructed and being carried out in Caguas, Puerto Rico, pursuant to Presidential Letter No. 1579 of May 2, 1936. 2. All right, title, and interest held on October 31, 1937, by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in the two above-described projects are hereby transferred to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, together with the following: (a) All assets, contracts, records, and other property held by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works on October 31, 1937, in connection with the above-described projects: Provided, however , that nothing herein shall be construed as impairing or affecting the obligation of the United States under any contracts hereby transferred. (b) All funds allocated to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works which were available on October 31, 1937, for the construction and completion of the above-mentioned projects and are not yet expended. (c) All employees who are actually serving in Puerto Rico on the effective date of this order and who shall be certified within one month from this date by the Federal Emergency Administrator of Public Works as having been employed in the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in Puerto Rico on October 31, 1937, in connection with the construction or administration of the above-described projects. 3. The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, through the Administrator thereof, shall supervise, control, and administer the above-described projects and the funds, property, and employees hereby transferred, in accordance with the said Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and the act of February 11, 1936, entitled "An Act to provide that funds allocated to Puerto Rico under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 may be expended for permanent rehabilitation, and for other purposes" (49 Stat. 1135). FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, March 12, 1938.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 7839 (Mar. 12, 1938), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7839-transferring-certain-housing-or-slum-clearance-projects-the-puerto.