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Executive Order 9638 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9638—Creating the Civilian Production Administration and Terminating the War Production Board

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Thursday, October 4, 1945
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3 min read (602 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (602 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

All functions and powers of the War Production Board, established by Executive Order No. 9024 of January 16, 1942, and all agencies, officers (other than the Chairman and the other members of the War Production Board), employees, records, property, and funds of the Board are transferred to a Civilian Production Administration which is hereby established in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Public Health & Medical Institutions

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 October 4, 1945, this order concerns Creating the Civilian Production Administration and Terminating the War Production Board. All functions and powers of the War Production Board, established by Executive Order No. 9024 of January 16, 1942, and all agencies, officers (other than the Chairman and the other members of the War Production Board), employees, records, property, and funds of the Board are transferred to a Civilian Production Administration which is hereby established in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office…

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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All functions and powers of the War Production Board, established by Executive Order No. 9024 of January 16, 1942, and all agencies, officers (other than the Chairman and the other members of the War Production Board), employees, records, property, and funds of the Board are transferred to a Civilian Production Administration which is hereby established in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President.

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The War Production Board is hereby terminated. 2.

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At the head of the Civilian Production Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Administration) there shall be a Civilian Production Administrator (hereinafter referred to as the Administrator) who shall be appointed by the President and receive a salary of $12,000 per annum unless the Congress shall otherwise provide, together with actual and necessary transportation, subsistence, and other expenses incidental to the performance of his duties.

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All the functions and powers vested in the Chairman of the War Production Board on the effective date of this order are transferred to the Civilian Production Administrator and may be performed by him through such officials, persons, or agencies as he shall determine.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions

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)
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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
53 / 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

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
602
3,810 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
20.9
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 Statutes, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows: 1. All functions and powers of the War Production Board, established by Executive Order No. 9024 of January 16, 1942, and all agencies, officers (other than the Chairman and the other members of the War Production Board), employees, records, property, and funds of the Board are transferred to a Civilian Production Administration which is hereby established in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President. The War Production Board is hereby terminated. 2. At the head of the Civilian Production Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Administration) there shall be a Civilian Production Administrator (hereinafter referred to as the Administrator) who shall be appointed by the President and receive a salary of $12,000 per annum unless the Congress shall otherwise provide, together with actual and necessary transportation, subsistence, and other expenses incidental to the performance of his duties. All the functions and powers vested in the Chairman of the War Production Board on the effective date of this order are transferred to the Civilian Production Administrator and may be performed by him through such officials, persons, or agencies as he shall determine. The administrator shall exercise his functions and powers in accordance with the general policies established by the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion. 3. The functions and powers transferred by this order shall, to the extent authorized by law, be utilized to further a swift and orderly transition from wartime production to a maximum peacetime production in industry free from wartime Government controls, with due regard for the stability of prices and costs; and to that end shall be utilized to: (a) expand the production of materials which are in short supply, (b) limit the manufacture of products for which materials or facilities are insufficient, (c) control the accumulation of inventories so as to avoid speculative hoarding and unbalanced distribution which would curtail total production, (d) grant priority assistance to break bottlenecks which would impede the reconversion process, (e) facilitate the fulfillment of relief and other essential export programs, and (f) allocate scarce materials and facilities necessary for the production of low-priced items essential to the continued success of the stabilization program of the Federal Government. 4. The Administrator may, to the extent authorized by law, terminate any function vested in the Administration by this order when he shall deem such action to be in the national interest. The Administrator shall be responsible for the orderly liquidation of all affairs relating to any function so terminated and shall also from time to time take all appropriate steps looking toward the liquidation of the Administration. 5. Such further measures and dispositions as may be determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to be necessary to effectuate the transfers and terminations provided for in this order shall be carried out in such manner as the Director may direct and by such agencies as be may designate. 6. All prior regulations, orders, rulings, directives and other actions relating to any function transferred by this order shall remain in effect except insofar as they are in conflict with this order or are hereafter amended under proper authority. 7. All provisions of prior Executive Orders which are in conflict with this order are amended accordingly. 8. This order shall be effective as of the close of business on the third day of November, 1945. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

October 4, 1945

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 9638 (Oct. 4, 1945), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9638-creating-the-civilian-production-administration-and-terminating-the.