Under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 7(4) of the act of March 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 456, 461 (U.S.C., title 48, sec. 1237), and as President of the United States, I hereby prescribe the following regulations and procedure governing appeals from decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States: 1. Every appeal from a decision of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States shall be in writing, shall be addressed to the President of the United States, shall definitely specify the particular decision of the Auditor General appealed from, shall embody a statement of the reasons and authorities relied upon, and shall be filed, with one duplicate copy, in the Office of the United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands within thirty days from the date of the decision appealed from. 2. Upon receipt of such an appeal the High Commissioner shall transmit a copy thereof to the Auditor General of the Philippines, who shall, within thirty days after his receipt of the copy, provide the High Commissioner with authenticated copies of all pertinent documents and correspondence within his control, together with any statement he may desire to offer in connection with the appeal. 3. Upon receipt from the Auditor General of the matter specified in the preceding paragraph, the High Commissioner, acting for and on behalf of the President of the United States, shall proceed to consider the appeal, and if he concurs in the decision of the Auditor General, he shall duly notify the appellant and the Auditor General in writing to that effect, which notification shall constitute a final disposition of the appeal. 4. If, upon his consideration of such an appeal, the High Commissioner concludes that the decision appealed from is erroneous, he shall transmit the pertinent papers, together with a statement of his views and recommendations, through the Bureau of Insular Affairs, to the Secretary of War, for submission to the President. 5. The decision of the President shall be recorded by the Secretary of War in the form of an indorsement on the file, which shall then be returned to the High Commissioner, who shall in writing inform the appellant and the Auditor General of the decision of the President. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, May 15, 1939 .
Executive Order 8135 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 8135—Appeals From Decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 2 min read (396 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
I hereby prescribe the following regulations and procedure governing appeals from decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States: 1.
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
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 May 15, 1939, this order concerns Appeals From Decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States. I hereby prescribe the following regulations and procedure governing appeals from decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States: 1. Every appeal from a decision of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States shall be in writing, shall be addressed to the President of the United States, shall definitely specify the particular decision 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
▪
I hereby prescribe the following regulations and procedure governing appeals from decisions of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States: 1.
▪
Every appeal from a decision of the Auditor General of the Philippines to the President of the United States shall be in writing, shall be addressed to the President of the United States, shall definitely specify the particular decision of the Auditor General appealed from, shall embody a statement of the reasons and authorities relied upon, and shall be filed, with one duplicate copy, in the Office of the United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands within thirty days from the date of the decision appealed from. 2.
▪
Upon receipt of such an appeal the High Commissioner shall transmit a copy thereof to the Auditor General of the Philippines, who shall, within thirty days after his receipt of the copy, provide the High Commissioner with authenticated copies of all pertinent documents and correspondence within his control, together with any statement he may desire to offer in connection with the appeal. 3.
▪
Upon receipt from the Auditor General of the matter specified in the preceding paragraph, the High Commissioner, acting for and on behalf of the President of the United States, shall proceed to consider the appeal, and if he concurs in the decision of the Auditor General, he shall duly notify the appellant and the Auditor General in writing to that effect, which notification shall constitute a final disposition of the appeal. 4.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Executive Branch Departments
🏛️ General Body of the People
Policy Areas & Topics
🏛️
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating 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
📐
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
35 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
Low Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
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
Moderate Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.
Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment
Moderate Friction
Federalism & State Sovereignty
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
Low Friction
Due Process & Individual Rights
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
Moderate Friction
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
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
396
2,369 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
19.7
Post-Graduate Legal
Text size:
🔗
Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)
Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.
Related Executive Orders
Other executive actions signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt around this period.
EO 8136 May 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8136—Delegating Certain Powers to the Attorney General and Directing the Secretary of the Treasury To Sell Certain Securities
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
All power and authority conferred upon the President by sections 9, 12, 20, and 21 of the said Trading with the Enemy Act, as amended, and all power and authority which the President under that Act has heretofore ordered to be exercised through the Alien Property Custodian, are…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
EO 8134 May 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8134—Modification of Executive Order No. 6746 of June 21, 1934, as Modified, Prescribing Rates of Compensation of Government Employees in Emergency Agencies, Etc.
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
Executive Order No. 6746 of June 21, 1934, as modified, prescribing rates of compensation of Government employees in emergency agencies, etc., not subject to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, be, and it is hereby, further modified to provide that the heads of agencies…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 8133 May 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8133—Further Amending Executive Order No. 7677-A of July 26, 1937, as Amended, Entitled "Civilian Conservation Corps"
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Paragraph No. 3 of Executive Order No. 7677-A of July 26, 1937, as amended by Executive Order No. 7717 of September 29, 1937, is hereby further amended to read as follows: "3.
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 8138 May 17, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8138—Partial Revocation of Executive Order of July 9, 1910, Creating Coal Land Withdrawal, Montana No. 1
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
By virtue of the authority vested in me by the act of June 25, 1910, c. 421, 36 Stat. 847, the Executive order of July 9, 1910, creating Coal Land Withdrawal, Montana No. 1, is hereby revoked as to the following-described lands: MONTANA MERIDIAN, MONTANA T. 21 N., R. 23 E., all.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 6 • 1m
EO 8137 May 17, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8137—Authorizing the Extension of Appointments of Certain Employees of the General Accounting Office
📜 Art. II §3: Administrative Management & Civil Service
The employees of the General Accounting Office whose continuance in the service until June 30, 1939, was authorized by Executive Order No. 7913 of June 16, 1938, may be further continued in the service for a period not to extend beyond June 30, 1940.
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 8132 May 12, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8132—Exemption of Miss Lilian H. Lamb From Compulsory Retirement for Age
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
I hereby exempt the said Miss Lilian M. Lamb from compulsory retirement for age for a period of one year ending June 30, 1940.
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 8135 (May 15, 1939), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-8135-appeals-from-decisions-the-auditor-general-the-philippines-the.
