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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 9587 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9587—Amending Executive Order 8588 Entitled "Prescribing Regulations Governing the Payment of Expenses of Transportation of Household Goods and Personal Effects of Certain Civilian Officers and Employees of the United States" and Prescribing Regulations Governing the Payment of Expenses of Transportation of the Immediate Family of Civilian Officers and Employees of the Government

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Friday, July 6, 1945
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3 min read (650 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (650 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Sections 5 and 12 of Executive Order 8588 of November 7, 1940, as amended by sections 1 and 4 of Executive Order 9122 of April 6, 1942, are hereby further amended to read as follows: "SECTION 5.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Harry S Truman on July 6, 1945, this order concerns Amending Executive Order 8588 Entitled "Prescribing Regulations Governing the Payment of Expenses of Transportation of Household Goods and Personal Effects of Certain Civilian Officers and Employees of the United States" and Prescribing Regulations Governing the Payment of Expenses of Transportation of the Immediate Family of Civilian Officers and Employees of the Government. Sections 5 and 12 of Executive Order 8588 of November 7, 1940, as amended by sections 1 and 4 of Executive Order 9122 of April 6, 1942, are hereby further amended to read as follows: "SECTION 5. Means of shipment.

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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Sections 5 and 12 of Executive Order 8588 of November 7, 1940, as amended by sections 1 and 4 of Executive Order 9122 of April 6, 1942, are hereby further amended to read as follows: "SECTION 5.

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For the duration of the present war and six months thereafter transportation services, including services specified in sections 3 and 4 hereof, may be procured by the agency concerned, with due regard to means ordinarily required for such transportation, from any available common carrier: Provided, however, That the employee may have his effects moved by some means other than that selected by the Government, by paying the difference between the charges under the means selected by the Government and the charges by the preferred means: And provided further, That when the head of the department or agency determines it to be in the interest of the Government, he may specifically authorize the shipment by express of articles required for…

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All shipments allowable under these regulations shall begin within one year of the effective date of the transfer of the employee unless an extension is specifically granted by the head of the department ore establishment.

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Such an extension shall be approved by the head of the department or establishment within the one-year period during which shipment would otherwise begin and shall in no case be for a period exceeding two years from the effective date of the transfer, except that, for employees who enter upon active military, naval, or Coast Guard duty at any time prior to the expiration of the period within which transportation of their effects is authorized and who are furloughed for the duration of such duty, the extension may be made effective until a date not more than six months following the date of termination of the furlough." PART II The following regulations are hereby prescribed to govern the payment of expenses of transportation, authorized…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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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
45 / 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

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%).
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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
650
3,994 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
24.1
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 and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the act of October 10, 1940, 54 Stat. 1105, and section 201 (a) of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1946, approved May 3, 1945, it is hereby ordered as follows: PART I Sections 5 and 12 of Executive Order 8588 of November 7, 1940, as amended by sections 1 and 4 of Executive Order 9122 of April 6, 1942, are hereby further amended to read as follows: "SECTION 5. Means of shipment. For the duration of the present war and six months thereafter transportation services, including services specified in sections 3 and 4 hereof, may be procured by the agency concerned, with due regard to means ordinarily required for such transportation, from any available common carrier: Provided, however, That the employee may have his effects moved by some means other than that selected by the Government, by paying the difference between the charges under the means selected by the Government and the charges by the preferred means: And provided further, That when the head of the department or agency determines it to be in the interest of the Government, he may specifically authorize the shipment by express of articles required for immediate use at the new official station (such as professional books, wearing apparel, bedding or kitchen utensils, but not furniture or jewelry), which shall in no case exceed a weight of 500 pounds for employees having dependents living with them or 250 pounds for employees having no dependents living with them." "SECTION 12. Time Limit. All shipments allowable under these regulations shall begin within one year of the effective date of the transfer of the employee unless an extension is specifically granted by the head of the department ore establishment. Such an extension shall be approved by the head of the department or establishment within the one-year period during which shipment would otherwise begin and shall in no case be for a period exceeding two years from the effective date of the transfer, except that, for employees who enter upon active military, naval, or Coast Guard duty at any time prior to the expiration of the period within which transportation of their effects is authorized and who are furloughed for the duration of such duty, the extension may be made effective until a date not more than six months following the date of termination of the furlough." PART II The following regulations are hereby prescribed to govern the payment of expenses of transportation, authorized by section 201 (a) of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1946, of the immediate family of any civilian officer or employee of the executive departments and independent establishments who is transferred from one official station to another for permanent duty, when authorized by the head of the department or establishment concerned in the order directing such transfer: SECTION 1. The term immediate family shall mean any of the following members of the officer's or employee's household: spouse, children (including step-children and adopted children) unmarried and under twenty-one years of age or physically or mentally incapable of self-support regardless of age, and dependent parents. SECTION 2. The transportation of the immediate family of an officer or employee shall be subject to those provisions of the Standardized Government Travel Regulations which relate to transportation. The cost to the Government shall not exceed the cost of transportation by the most economical route between the last official station and the new official station. No payments shall be authorized hereunder in the event transportation of the immediate family does not begin within six months of the effective date of the transfer of the officer or employee, unless an extension of time is specifically granted by the head of the agency concerned. This order shall be effective as of July 1, 1945, and shall be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

July 6, 1945

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (2)

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

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 9587 (July 6, 1945), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9587-amending-executive-order-8588-entitled-prescribing-regulations.