★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 9475 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9475—Transferring the Functions and Responsibilities of the Rubber Director

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt
•
Friday, September 1, 1944
•
2 min read (430 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (430 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Office of Rubber Director, established by Executive Order 9246, dated September 17, 1942, is abolished and the authority and functions of the Rubber Director are transferred to the Chairman of the War Production Board except as provided for in paragraph 3 of this order. 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 Private Citizens & Property Owners Foreign Nations & International Entities
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 September 1, 1944, this order concerns Transferring the Functions and Responsibilities of the Rubber Director. The Office of Rubber Director, established by Executive Order 9246, dated September 17, 1942, is abolished and the authority and functions of the Rubber Director are transferred to the Chairman of the War Production Board except as provided for in paragraph 3 of this order. 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

▪

The Office of Rubber Director, established by Executive Order 9246, dated September 17, 1942, is abolished and the authority and functions of the Rubber Director are transferred to the Chairman of the War Production Board except as provided for in paragraph 3 of this order. 2.

▪

All regulations, rulings and other directives relating to the rubber program issued under Executive Order 9246 shall remain in effect except insofar as they may be amended by the Chairman of the War Production Board. 3.

▪

Rubber Reserve Company, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, shall have responsibility for: (a) Purchase, sale, acquisition, storage and transportation of synthetic and natural rubbers in amounts determined by the Chairman of the War Production Board to be necessary to meet the requirements of the Nation\'s rubber program.

▪

The personnel, property, records, unexpended balances of appropriations, and other funds of the War Production Board primarily concerned with and available for the discharge of any of the functions, responsibilities, powers, and authorities that are vested in the Rubber Reserve Company by paragraph 3 of this order shall, to the extent determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, be transferred to the Rubber Reserve Company.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ National Security & Defense
🏛️

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
📐

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
50 / 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

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

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
430
2,720 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
19.2
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, particularly the Act of December 18, 1941, entitled "First War Powers Act, 1941" (Public 354—77th Congress), as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. The Office of Rubber Director, established by Executive Order 9246, dated September 17, 1942, is abolished and the authority and functions of the Rubber Director are transferred to the Chairman of the War Production Board except as provided for in paragraph 3 of this order. 2. All regulations, rulings and other directives relating to the rubber program issued under Executive Order 9246 shall remain in effect except insofar as they may be amended by the Chairman of the War Production Board. 3. Rubber Reserve Company, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, shall have responsibility for: (a) Purchase, sale, acquisition, storage and transportation of synthetic and natural rubbers in amounts determined by the Chairman of the War Production Board to be necessary to meet the requirements of the Nation\'s rubber program. (b) Research, development and testing of synthetic rubbers and new monomers therefor and the testing of tires and tubes made therefrom by test fleets owned by or operated for the government, financed by or conducted in cooperation with the Rubber Reserve Company. (c) Subject to directives of the Chairman of the War Production Board, operation of plants of the synthetic rubber program owned by Defense Plant Corporation or Rubber Reserve Company or operated under contract with either of them, except those which are within petroleum refineries. 4. The personnel, property, records, unexpended balances of appropriations, and other funds of the War Production Board primarily concerned with and available for the discharge of any of the functions, responsibilities, powers, and authorities that are vested in the Rubber Reserve Company by paragraph 3 of this order shall, to the extent determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, be transferred to the Rubber Reserve Company. In determining the amounts transferred hereunder, allowance shall be made for the liquidation of obligations previously incurred against such balances of appropriations, allocations, or other funds transferred. 5. Nothing herein shall be construed to limit the powers conferred upon the Price Administrator by the "Emergency Price Control Act of 1942", as amended. 6. Any provision of any Executive Order conflicting with this order is superseded to the extent of such conflict. 7. This order shall take effect as of September 1, 1944. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, September 1, 1944.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9475 (Sept. 1, 1944), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9475-transferring-the-functions-and-responsibilities-the-rubber-director.