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Executive Order 9400 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9400—Authorizing the Secretary of the Navy To Take Possession of and Operate the Shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation at Los Angeles, California

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Friday, December 3, 1943
•
2 min read (362 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (362 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of the Navy to take possession of and operate the shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation, located at Los Angeles, California, in order effectively to construct, convert and repair vessels required by the United States and to do all things necessary or incidental to that end.

View all 3 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 Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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 December 3, 1943, this order concerns Authorizing the Secretary of the Navy To Take Possession of and Operate the Shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation at Los Angeles, California. I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of the Navy to take possession of and operate the shipyard of the Los Angeles…

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, Franklin D. Roosevelt, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of the Navy to take possession of and operate the shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation, located at Los Angeles, California, in order effectively to construct, convert and repair vessels required by the United States and to do all things necessary or incidental to that end.

▪

The Secretary of the Navy may exercise the authority herein conferred through and with the aid of such person or persons or instrumentalities as he may designate, and may select and hire such employees, including a competent civilian adviser on industrial relations, as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this order, and in furtherance of the purposes of this order, the Secretary of the Navy may exercise any existing contractual or other rights of the said corporation, and take such other steps as may be necessary or desirable.

▪

Possession and operation of the said shipyard under this order will be terminated within sixty days after the President determines that the shipyard will be operated privately in an efficient manner consistent with the requirements of the war effort.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

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)
§

"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
37 / 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

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

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%).
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
362
2,226 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
33.5
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

Whereas the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation has entered into contracts with the Navy Department for the construction, conversion and repair of vessels essential to the prosecution of the war; and Whereas because of the failure of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation to perform satisfactorily the work called for by its contracts with the Navy Department, it is deemed essential that the shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation, located at Los Angeles, California, be taken over for use and operation by the United States of America in order that it may be effectively operated in the construction, conversion and repair of vessels required by the United States: Now, Therefore , I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of the Navy to take possession of and operate the shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation, located at Los Angeles, California, in order effectively to construct, convert and repair vessels required by the United States and to do all things necessary or incidental to that end. The Secretary of the Navy may exercise the authority herein conferred through and with the aid of such person or persons or instrumentalities as he may designate, and may select and hire such employees, including a competent civilian adviser on industrial relations, as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this order, and in furtherance of the purposes of this order, the Secretary of the Navy may exercise any existing contractual or other rights of the said corporation, and take such other steps as may be necessary or desirable. Possession and operation of the said shipyard under this order will be terminated within sixty days after the President determines that the shipyard will be operated privately in an efficient manner consistent with the requirements of the war effort. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, December 3, 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 9592-A—Amendment of Executive Order No. 9400 of December 3, 1943, Authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to Take Possession of and Operate the Shipyard of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation At Los Angeles, California
Harry S Truman • 1945-07-23
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9400 (Dec. 3, 1943), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9400-authorizing-the-secretary-the-navy-take-possession-and-operate-the.