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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 9106 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9106—Excepting Certain Persons From the Classification of "Alien Enemy" for the Purpose of Permitting Them to Apply for Naturalization

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Friday, March 20, 1942
•
2 min read (416 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (416 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby except from the classification "alien enemy" all persons whom the Attorney General of the United States shall, after investigation fully establishing their loyalty, certify as persons loyal to the United States.

View all 1 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners
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 20, 1942, this order concerns Excepting Certain Persons From the Classification of "Alien Enemy" for the Purpose of Permitting Them to Apply for Naturalization. I hereby except from the classification "alien enemy" all persons whom the Attorney General of the United States shall, after investigation fully establishing their loyalty, certify as persons loyal to the United States.

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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I hereby except from the classification "alien enemy" all persons whom the Attorney General of the United States shall, after investigation fully establishing their loyalty, certify as persons loyal to the United States.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Immigration & Border Security
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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
34 / 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

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

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
416
2,500 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
18.4
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

Whereas section 326 of the Nationality Act of 1940, approved October 14, 1940 (54 Stat. 1150; U.S.C., title 8, sec. 726), reads as follows:

Sec. 326. #sec-326

(a) An alien who Is a native, citizen, subject, or denizen of any country, state, or sovereignty with which the United States is at war may be naturalized as a citizen of the United States if such alien's declaration of intention was made not less than two years prior to the beginning of the, state of war, or such alien was at the beginning of the state of war entitled to become a citizen of the United States without making a declaration of intention, or his petition for naturalization shall at .the beginning of the state of war be pending and the petitioner is otherwise entitled to admission, notwithstanding such petitioner shall be an alien enemy at the time and in the manner prescribed by the laws passed upon that subject. (b) An alien embraced within this section shall not have such alien's petition for naturalization called for a hearing, or heard, except after ninety days' notice given by the clerk of the court to the Commissioner to be represented at the hearing, and the Commissioner's objection to such final hearing shall cause the petition to be continued from time to time for so long as the Commissioner may require. (c) Nothing herein contained shall be taken or construed to interfere with or prevent the apprehension and removal, agreeably to law, of any alien enemy at any time previous to the actual naturalization of such alien. (d) The President of the United States may, in his discretion, upon investigation and report by the Department of Justice fully establishing the loyalty of any alien enemy not included in the foregoing exemption, except such alien enemy from the classification of alien enemy, and thereupon such alien shall have the privilege of applying for naturalization. Now, Therefore , by virtue of the authority vested in me by the foregoing statutory provisions, and in order to carry out the purposes thereof, I hereby except from the classification "alien enemy" all persons whom the Attorney General of the United States shall, after investigation fully establishing their loyalty, certify as persons loyal to the United States. This order supersedes Executive Order No. 3008 of November 26, 1918, entitled "Excepting Certain Persons from the Classification of 'Alien Enemy' for the Purpose of Permitting Them to Apply for Naturalization". FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, March 20, 1942.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

Supersedes Executive Order 9372—Excepting Certain Persons From the Classification of "Alien Enemy" for the Purposes of Permitting Them To Apply for Naturalization
Franklin D. Roosevelt • 1943-08-27
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9106 (Mar. 20, 1942), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9106-excepting-certain-persons-from-the-classification-alien-enemy-for-the.