Whereas by Executive order of August 12, 1898, certain lands in the Territory of Alaska were reserved and set apart as an agricultural experiment station for the use of the United States Department of Agriculture; and Whereas the Department of Agriculture no longer requires the said lands for use as an experimental station and has abandoned such use of the lands; and Whereas it appears that reservation of such lands for the use of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, as a magnetic and seismological observatory site would be in the public interest: Now, Therefore , by virtue of the authority vested in me by the act of June 25, 1910, c. 421, 36 Stat. 847, as amended by the act of August 24, 1912, c. 569, 37 Stat. 497, the said Executive order of August 12, 1898, is hereby revoked, and the lands described therein are hereby reserved and set apart for the use of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, as a magnetic and seismological observatory site. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, June 14, 1939.
Executive Order 8168 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Executive Order 8168—Transferring From the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Commerce Certain Lands at Sitka, Alaska, for Use as a Magnetic and Seismological Observatory Site by the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 1 min read (186 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
The said Executive order of August 12, 1898, is hereby revoked, and the lands described therein are hereby reserved and set apart for the use of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, as a magnetic and seismological observatory site.
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners
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 June 14, 1939, this order concerns Transferring From the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Commerce Certain Lands at Sitka, Alaska, for Use as a Magnetic and Seismological Observatory Site by the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey. The said Executive order of August 12, 1898, is hereby revoked, and the lands described therein are hereby reserved and set apart for the use of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, as a magnetic and seismological observatory site.
Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.
Key Directives & Operative Actions
▪
The said Executive order of August 12, 1898, is hereby revoked, and the lands described therein are hereby reserved and set apart for the use of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, as a magnetic and seismological observatory site.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
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
"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
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
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
Low Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.
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
186
1,074 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
15.5
College Level
Text size:
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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 8169 Jun 14, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8169—Partial Revocation of Executive Order No. 6153 of June 3, 1933, Withdrawing Public Lands
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
COLORADO By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the act of June 25, 1910, c. 421, 36 Stat. 847, as amended by the act of August 24, 1912, c. 369, 37 Stat. 497, Executive Order No. 6153 of June 3, 1933, withdrawing public lands in Colorado pending a resurvey…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 7 • 1m
EO 8174 Jun 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8174—Amending Executive Order No. 6901 of November 13, 1934 Withdrawing Public Land as a Wildlife Administrative Site
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
ALASKA By virtue of the authority vested in me by the act of June 25, 1910, c. 421, 36 Stat. 847, as amended by the act of August 24, 1912, c. 569, 37 Stat. 497, Executive Order No. 6901 of November 13, 1934, withdrawing a tract of public land in Alaska for use as a…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 7 • 1m
EO 8173 Jun 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8173—Establishing the Talcot Lake Migratory Waterfowl Refuge
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The following-described lands, acquired or being acquired by the United States, comprising 804.71 acres, more or less; and part of Talcot Lake, in Cottonwood County, Minnesota, be, and they are hereby, reserved and set apart, subject to valid rights, for the use of the…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 8 • 2m
EO 8172 Jun 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8172—Excluding Certain Tracts of Land From the Chugach and Tongass National Forests and Restoring Them to Entry
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The following-described tracts of land in Alaska, occupied for trade and manufacturing purposes or as homesites and identified by elimination surveys, plats and field notes of which are on file in the General Land Office, Washington, D. C., be, and they are hereby, excluded…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Grade 7 • 3m
EO 8171 Jun 15, 1939
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8171—Transfer of Jurisdiction Over Certain Lands From the Secretary of Agriculture to the Secretary of War
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
The lands acquired or in process of acquisition by the United States within the areas delineated on the diagrams attached hereto and made a part hereof, together with the improvements thereon, be, and they are hereby, transferred from the Secretary of Agriculture to the…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
EO 8170 Jun 15, 1939
🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 8170—Authorizing the Appointment of A. Sidney Johnson to the Position of Deputy Commissioner of Customs Without Regard to Civil Service Rules
📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution
A. Sidney Johnson may be appointed a deputy commissioner of customs in the Bureau of Customs, Treasury Department, at Washington, D.C., without compliance with the requirements of the Civil Service Rules.
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 8168 (June 14, 1939), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-8168-transferring-from-the-department-agriculture-the-department-commerce.
