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Executive Order 12161 Constitutional Fidelity (+0.29)

Executive Order 12161—Anti-Inflation Program

Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter
•
Friday, September 28, 1979
•
2 min read (385 words)

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

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

This executive order, signed by President Jimmy Carter on 1979-09-28, establishes federal administrative policy concerning "Anti-Inflation Program." It outlines operative directives for executive department officers, delegating enforcement responsibilities and establishing official governance guidelines.

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

▪ SECOND YEAR OF THE ANTI-INFLATION PROGRAM By the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including the Council on Wage and Price Stability Act, as amended ( 12 U.S.C.
▪ 1904 note), and the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C.
▪ 486(a)), and in order to supplement the anti-inflation program established on November 3, 1978, Section 1-102 of Executive Order No.
▪ 12092 is hereby amended to read as follows: "1-102.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
Total Words
385
2,401 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
16.7
Post-Grad reading level
Constitutional Polarity
+0.29
Framers' Alignment index
📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 12161, Jimmy Carter (Sep 28, 1979). Available at https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12161-anti-inflation-program.

Official Document Text

Source: The American Presidency Project (UCSB Archive)

Original Source →
SECOND YEAR OF THE ANTI-INFLATION PROGRAM By the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including the Council on Wage and Price Stability Act, as amended ( 12 U.S.C. 1904 note), and the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C. 486(a)), and in order to supplement the anti-inflation program established on November 3, 1978, Section 1-102 of Executive Order No. 12092 is hereby amended to read as follows: "1-102. Anti-inflationary wage and price behavior shall be measured by the following standards: (a) For prices, anti-inflationary price behavior of a company is a current rate of average price increase no greater than its historical rate of price increase during 1976-77, except where the company experiences uncontrollable increases in the prices of the goods and services it buys, and subject to the provisions of paragraphs (c) and (d). (b) For pay, anti-inflationary pay behavior is the holding of pay increases to not more than 7 percent annually above their recent historical levels, subject to the provisions of paragraphs (c) and (d). (c) These standards, which shall be further defined or modified by the Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, shall be subject to limitations and exceptions as determined by the Chairman and shall be administered so as to take into account any inequities that may have been created by the standards during the past year. (d) The Council is directed to reconstitute in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, a Pay Advisory Committee and a Price Advisory Committee in order to provide greater participation by the public in the anti-inflation program. The Pay Advisory Committee and the Price Advisory Committee will advise the Council on developing policies that encourage anti-inflationary pay and price behavior by private industry, employers, and labor, that decelerate the rate of inflation and that provide for a fair and equitable distribution of the burden of restraint. To the extent permitted by law, the Council is directed to provide the Pay and Price Advisory Committees with all information required to perform their duties.". JIMMY CARTER The White House, September 28, 1979. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:40 p.m., September 28, 1979]