President Trump's move to eliminate civil service protections for a wide number of federal employees was challenged in federal court Tuesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which maintained the effort exceeds the president's authority.
Under the president's plan, thousands of federal employees with civil service protections would be converted to at-will employees, meaning they could be fired without cause.
The Republican's move wasn't the first time such an effort was made. Early in the 19th century a "spoils system" had evolved by which presidents filled positions with loyalists. The modern civil service system was adopted in 1883, according to the lawsuit.
“Donald Trump’s executive order reverses course on 140 years of civil service reform meant to ensure federal employees have the required skills and expertise to best serve the American people and protect the civil service from dangerous nepotism and cronyism,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of PEER's clients in the lawsuit. “With one of his first acts in office, Donald Trump put the country on a path toward getting rid of merit-based hiring and staffing crucial government functions with unqualified loyalists.”
Trump moved during his first term to reduce many civil service protections and reclassify jobs as "policy" positions that would serve at the president's pleasure. Part of the executive order he signed to create a new category of the federal workforce stated that agencies needed “the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation.”
President Biden revoked the order before it took effect. Many organizations feared Trump's effort would fill the federal government with loyalists who would do his bidding.
However, Trump revived the move last week.
“This profoundly troubling move advances efforts by the administration to politicize policymaking by removing scientists and experts and inserting, instead, those who will follow the wishes of political leaders,” said Tim Whitehouse, PEER executive director. “It would allow political leaders to reach deep into federal agencies to remove and replace unknown and unheralded civil servants whose work is critical to keeping our country safe but whose viewpoints may run afoul of the prevailing political narrative of the day.”
PEER's lawsuit argues that Trump's efforts excede the president's "authority under the Civil Service Reform Act, purports to deprive federal employees of property rights without due process required by the Fifth Amendment, and requires federal agencies to violate the Administrative Procedure Act."