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Executive Order 9760 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.55) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9760—Conferring Certain Authority Upon the Secretary of State With Regard to Diplomatic and Consular Property of Germany and Japan Within the United States

Harry S Truman Harry S Truman
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Tuesday, July 23, 1946
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1 min read (283 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 1 min read (283 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Secretary of State is authorized and empowered as he deems necessary in the national interest to direct, manage, supervise or control diplomatic and consular property within the United States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan, including all assets on the premises of such property. 2.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
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 Harry S Truman on July 23, 1946, this order concerns Conferring Certain Authority Upon the Secretary of State With Regard to Diplomatic and Consular Property of Germany and Japan Within the United States. The Secretary of State is authorized and empowered as he deems necessary in the national interest to direct, manage, supervise or control diplomatic and consular property within the United States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan, including all assets on the premises of such property. 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 Secretary of State is authorized and empowered as he deems necessary in the national interest to direct, manage, supervise or control diplomatic and consular property within the United States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan, including all assets on the premises of such property. 2.

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The Alien Property Custodian shall not exercise any power and authority conferred upon him by any other Executive order with respect to diplomatic and consular property within the Untied States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan except so far as the Secretary of State releases his authority over such diplomatic and consular property under this order and so notifies the Alien Property Custodian in writing. 3.

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When the Secretary of State determines to exercise any power and authority conferred upon him by this order with respect to any property over which the Secretary of the Treasury is exercising any control and so notifies the Secretary of the Treasury in writing, the Secretary of the Treasury shall release all control over such property, except as authorized or directed by the Secretary of State. 4.

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This order supersedes all conflicting provisions of prior Executive orders, including Executive Orders Nos. 8389, as amended, and 9095, as amended. 5.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Foreign Policy & Diplomacy 🏷️ Economy & Finance 🏷️ Immigration & Border Security
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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 1 (Maximum Authority)
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"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
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.

🛡️ High Constitutional Concordance
23 / 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

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

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates in close harmony with statutory authority and standard Article II supervisory execution.

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
283
1,714 characters
Estimated Read Time
1 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
19.5
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.55
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statues, including the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, as amended, and the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. The Secretary of State is authorized and empowered as he deems necessary in the national interest to direct, manage, supervise or control diplomatic and consular property within the United States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan, including all assets on the premises of such property. 2. The Alien Property Custodian shall not exercise any power and authority conferred upon him by any other Executive order with respect to diplomatic and consular property within the Untied States owned or controlled by Germany or Japan except so far as the Secretary of State releases his authority over such diplomatic and consular property under this order and so notifies the Alien Property Custodian in writing. 3. When the Secretary of State determines to exercise any power and authority conferred upon him by this order with respect to any property over which the Secretary of the Treasury is exercising any control and so notifies the Secretary of the Treasury in writing, the Secretary of the Treasury shall release all control over such property, except as authorized or directed by the Secretary of State. 4. This order supersedes all conflicting provisions of prior Executive orders, including Executive Orders Nos. 8389, as amended, and 9095, as amended. 5. The Secretary of State is authorized to prescribe from time to time regulations, rulings and instructions to carry out the purposes of this order. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

July 23, 1946

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9760 (July 23, 1946), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9760-conferring-certain-authority-upon-the-secretary-state-with-regard.