Jul 13, 2018

"Court-Packing" Coming?

President Trump’s latest action upsetting the established order of the federal workforce has spawned a bevy of accusations that his move could politicize the administrative judiciary.
A Trump executive order says administrative law judges, who primarily work for the Social Security Administration, will no longer be hired by the competitive civil service process that is a mainstay of an impartial bureaucracy. Instead, they will be selected by agency heads who could pick lawyers who do not need the experience previously required. ...
John Palguta, a civil service expert who previously worked for the Merit Systems Protection Board and the OPM, said the order should not pose a problem if agencies act “in a responsible manner.” ...
Calling the order “a court-packing plan” and “the equivalent of placing a thumb on the scale of justice,” Marilyn Zahm, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, said “they are removing hiring based on merit and replacing it with a system that could lead to abuse and biased decisions.” ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"If" the Agencies behave in a responsible manner... That makes a lot of assumptions rooted in the opposite of historical fact, now, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

The whole point of the previous system was to provide some separation and remove "self policing." In this environment in this day and time with the likes of Scott Pruitt being tapped to head agencies this seems particularly weak and pathetic.