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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 9632 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9632—Transfer of Jurisdiction from the War Department to the Department of the Interior Over the Interest of the United States in Certain Mineral Deposits in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

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Friday, September 28, 1945
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3 min read (532 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (532 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The jurisdiction over the interest of the United States of America in the mineral deposits in the Dupre Strip, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, is hereby transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior. 2.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

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 September 28, 1945, this order concerns Transfer of Jurisdiction from the War Department to the Department of the Interior Over the Interest of the United States in Certain Mineral Deposits in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The jurisdiction over the interest of the United States of America in the mineral deposits in the Dupre Strip, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, is hereby transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior. 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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The jurisdiction over the interest of the United States of America in the mineral deposits in the Dupre Strip, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, is hereby transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior. 2.

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The Secretary of the Interior shall take such action as may be necessary to protect the United States from loss on account of drainage or threatened drainage of the oil and gas deposits in the said Dupre Strip. 3.

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The jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior over the mineral deposits in the said Dupre Strip shall be subject to the primary jurisdiction of the War Department over the lands in connection with its program for the improvement of rivers and harbors. 4.

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All moneys received by the United States as royalties or otherwise on account of minerals extracted from the Dupre Strip shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and credited to miscellaneous receipts.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

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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
38 / 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

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

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
532
3,104 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
37.8
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS an agreement was entered into on February 14, 1941, by and between the United States of America and the Parish of Jefferson, Louisiana (which agreement is recorded in Conveyance Book 168, folio 663, and in Mortgage Book 113, folio 131, of the Records of the Parish of Jefferson), as to the nature and extent of certain grants made by the aforesaid Parish to the United States with respect to the Dupre Strip or Cut, described as follows: A certain strip of land extending from Bayou Dupont to Bayou Cutler, measuring four hundred (400) feet in width, starting in Section 36 Township 16 South, Range 23 East, and running in a Southeasterly direction through Sections 1 and 12 of Township 17 South, Range 23 East, and thence through Sections 7, 18, 19, 20, 29, 32, and 33, Township 17 South, Range 24 East, and thence through Section 4 Township 18 South, Range 24 East, and being commonly known as and hereinafter sometimes referred to as the Dupre Strip or Cut, all being located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, as indicated on a map of said four hundred (400) foot strip prepared by the United States Engineer's Office, dated New Orleans, Louisiana, July, 1919; WHEREAS under the terms of the above agreement the United States is entitled to receive payment of royalties in an amount equal to three thirty-seconds (3/32) of all minerals produced and saved from the said Dupre Strip; WHEREAS there are a number of productive zones beneath the said Dupre Strip the oil and gas deposits of which are subject to drainage by wells on adjacent lands in private ownership; WHEREAS it is necessary in the public interest that such protective action be taken as will prevent loss to the United States by reason of such drainage or threatened drainage; and WHEREAS, in order to facilitate such action, it is considered advisable to transfer jurisdiction from the War Department to the Department of the Interior over the interest of the United States of America in the mineral deposits in the said Dupre Strip:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows: 1. The jurisdiction over the interest of the United States of America in the mineral deposits in the Dupre Strip, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, is hereby transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior. 2. The Secretary of the Interior shall take such action as may be necessary to protect the United States from loss on account of drainage or threatened drainage of the oil and gas deposits in the said Dupre Strip. 3. The jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior over the mineral deposits in the said Dupre Strip shall be subject to the primary jurisdiction of the War Department over the lands in connection with its program for the improvement of rivers and harbors. 4. All moneys received by the United States as royalties or otherwise on account of minerals extracted from the Dupre Strip shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and credited to miscellaneous receipts. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

September 28, 1945

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 9632 (Sept. 28, 1945), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9632-transfer-jurisdiction-from-the-war-department-the-department-the.