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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 7979 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 7979—Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot Military Reservation

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Monday, September 26, 1938
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4 min read (713 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 4 min read (713 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The area of land composing this reservation shall continue to be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone Government in conformity with the provisions of the Canal Zone Code.

⚖️ 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 Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

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 September 26, 1938, this order concerns Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot Military Reservation. The following-described area of land in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a military reservation, which shall be known as Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot Military Reservation, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of War, subject to the provisions of section 2 of this Order: Beginning at a concrete monument A, marked "Point 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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Civil Jurisdiction of Canal Zone

The area of land composing this reservation shall continue to be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone Government in conformity with the provisions of the Canal Zone Code.

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The following-described area of land in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a military reservation, which shall be known as Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot Military Reservation, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of War, subject to the provisions of section 2 of this Order: Beginning at a concrete monument A, marked "Point of Beginning" on Panama Canal drawing No. L6105-81, located 869.0 feet northerly from the center line of the Panama Railroad right-of-way; from said monument the bearing and distance to an iron-rail reference monument, encased in concrete, marked 0 + 50 of the Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot control survey, is S. 12°51'30" E., 838.6…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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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
713
4,244 characters
Estimated Read Time
4 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
10.5
High School
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (2 sections)

CANAL ZONE By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 5 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code, approved June 19, 1934, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

Sec. 1. #sec-1

Setting apart of reservation; boundaries. The following-described area of land in the Canal Zone is hereby reserved and set apart as, and assigned to the uses and purposes of, a military reservation, which shall be known as Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot Military Reservation, and shall be under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of War, subject to the provisions of section 2 of this Order: Beginning at a concrete monument A, marked "Point of Beginning" on Panama Canal drawing No. L6105-81, located 869.0 feet northerly from the center line of the Panama Railroad right-of-way; from said monument the bearing and distance to an iron-rail reference monument, encased in concrete, marked 0 + 50 of the Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot control survey, is S. 12°51'30" E., 838.6 feet, and the bearing and distance to Pelado triangulation station of the Canal Zone triangulation system is N. 54°51'50" E., 3122.0 feet; the geographic position of monument A is in latitude 9°07' N. plus 2169.7 feet, and longitude 79°42' W. plus 5303.5 feet. Thence from said point of beginning by metes and bounds: Due West, 108.0 feet through brass-plug markers A-l and A-2 in a concrete road pavement, to a concrete monument, marked B, at the top of the bank of a pond; plugs A-l and A-2 are 61.5 feet and 77.9 feet, respectively, from monument A; N. 19°22'30" W., 528.8 feet to a concrete monument marked C; N. 23°32'00" W., 4986.4 feet, through pipe monuments C-l, C-2, C-3 and C-4, to a concrete monument marked D; monuments C-l, C-2, C-3 and C-4 are 189.2 feet, 1446.0 feet, 3118.7 feet and 4299.6 feet, respectively, from monument C; S. 88°17'10" E., 4100.4 feet, through pipe monuments D-l and D-2, to a concrete monument E; monuments D-l and D-2 are approximately 862 feet and 2937 feet, respectively, from monument D: S. 12°15'00" W., 4600.0 feet, through pipe monuments E-l, E-2, E-3, E-4 and E-5, to a concrete monument F; monuments E-l, E-2, E-3, E-4 and E-5 are approximately 522 feet, 1767 feet, 2643 feet, 3719 feet and 4199 feet, respectively, from monument E; S. 59°00'00" W., 878.8 feet, through a pipe monument F-l, and a concrete monument G on the bank of a pond, thence, across the pond to a concrete monument H, located at the top of the bank of said pond. Monuments F-l and G are 63.0 feet and 319.0 feet, respectively, from monument F; Due West, 95.0 feet to monument A, the point of beginning. The directions of the lines refer to the true meridian. The geographic positions of all points and monuments are referred to the Panama-Colon datum of the Canal Zone triangulation system. The concrete boundary monuments are 12" square, reinforced concrete posts, six feet long and burled three feet in the ground; the center is a drill hole in a four-inch diameter bronze plate fastened into the top of the post and marked "Cerro Pelado Ammunition Depot—Boundary Monument," and with the significant monument letter. The pipe monuments are three-inch diameter, galvanized iron pipes, three feet long, filled with concrete and projecting about one and one-half feet above a concrete base buried in the ground. The brass markers are one-half inch diameter plugs, three-quarter inch long, grouted in the concrete road pavement. The center is a punched hole. The above-described tract contains an area of 278.6 acres. The above-described area was surveyed by the Section of Surveys, The Panama Canal, in May 1938, under a work request from the Assistant Department Engineer, Corozal, Canal Zone; and is as shown on Panama Canal Drawing L6105-81, dated July 25, 1938, on file in the Governor's Office, Balboa Heights, Canal Zone, and in the Department Engineer's Office, Panama Canal Department, United States Army, Quarry Heights, Canal Zone.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Civil Jurisdiction of Canal Zone. The area of land composing this reservation shall continue to be subject to the civil jurisdiction of the Canal Zone Government in conformity with the provisions of the Canal Zone Code. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, September 26, 1938.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 7979 (Sept. 26, 1938), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7979-cerro-pelado-ammunition-depot-military-reservation.