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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 9387 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9387—Establishing an Advisory Board on Just Compensation and Prescribing Its Functions

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Friday, October 15, 1943
•
2 min read (432 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (432 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

There is hereby established a Board, to be known as the Advisory Board on Just Compensation (hereinafter referred to as the Board), whose composition, powers, functions and responsibilities are defined herein. 2.

View all 4 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
Armed Forces & Military Establishments
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 October 15, 1943, this order concerns Establishing an Advisory Board on Just Compensation and Prescribing Its Functions. There is hereby established a Board, to be known as the Advisory Board on Just Compensation (hereinafter referred to as the Board), whose composition, powers, functions and responsibilities are defined herein. 2.

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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There is hereby established a Board, to be known as the Advisory Board on Just Compensation (hereinafter referred to as the Board), whose composition, powers, functions and responsibilities are defined herein. 2.

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The Board shall consist of the following members: Judge Learned Hand, Judge John J. Parker, and Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr. The members of the Board shall serve for a period of three months or for such lesser period of time as may be required for the completion of the Functions of the Board as set forth in paragraph 4 of this order. 3.

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The Board shall be furnished by the War Shipping Administration with such professional, technical, clerical, stenographic and other personnel as may be selected by the Board to assist it in carrying out its functions. 4.

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The Board, in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, shall establish fair and equitable standards, rules and formulae of general applicability for the guidance of the War Shipping Administration in determining the just compensation to be paid for all vessels requisitioned, purchased, chartered or insured by the Administration.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ National Security & Defense
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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
48 / 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

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
432
2,691 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
15.7
College Level
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

The War Shipping Administration was established to insure the fullest utilization of our shipping facilities for the successful prosecution of the war. Substantially all the vessels of the United States Merchant Marine, including many fishing boats and other small craft, have been requisitioned by the United States through the Administrator, War Shipping Administration. In some cases this requisition was only of the use of the vessel, in others it included full title. In determining the amount of just compensation which the United States is required to pay under applicable statutes, numerous questions of fact and law must be solved. By obtaining guidance in these matters, the operations of the War Shipping Administration will be greatly facilitated and the determination of the proper compensation to be paid for individual vessels will be more speedily accomplished. Now, Therefore , by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes and particularly by the First War Powers Act, 1941, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. There is hereby established a Board, to be known as the Advisory Board on Just Compensation (hereinafter referred to as the Board), whose composition, powers, functions and responsibilities are defined herein. 2. The Board shall consist of the following members: Judge Learned Hand, Judge John J. Parker, and Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr. The members of the Board shall serve for a period of three months or for such lesser period of time as may be required for the completion of the Functions of the Board as set forth in paragraph 4 of this order. 3. The Board shall be furnished by the War Shipping Administration with such professional, technical, clerical, stenographic and other personnel as may be selected by the Board to assist it in carrying out its functions. 4. The Board, in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, shall establish fair and equitable standards, rules and formulae of general applicability for the guidance of the War Shipping Administration in determining the just compensation to be paid for all vessels requisitioned, purchased, chartered or insured by the Administration. The Board may prescribe such rules, regulations and procedures as it deems necessary or advisable in carrying out its functions. 5. In determining the amount of just compensation which should be paid for each vessel, the War Shipping Administration will be guided by the General standards, rules and formulae established by the Board. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, October 15, 1943.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

References Executive Order 9611—Reestablishing the Advisory Board on Just Compensation
Harry S Truman • 1945-09-10
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9387 (Oct. 15, 1943), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9387-establishing-advisory-board-just-compensation-and-prescribing-its.