Donald Trump has emaciated environmental regulations instituted by administrations from that of Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Trump has also targeted federal social safety net programs initiated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and refined by Harry S Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Trump’s attack on public education negates strides made by Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Trump’s exploitation of federal parks, nature reserves, and lands for oil exploration, fracking, and mining unravels the conservation efforts instituted, primarily, by Theodore Roosevelt, but supplemented by the actions of Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Wilson, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Trump has also turned back the clock on protection of civil rights, honoring treaties with Native American tribes, and enforcing voting rights.
However, one of the more egregious examples of Trump’s revocation of federal laws and regulations is his efforts to politicize the federal civil service. It took the assassination of President James Garfield at Union Station in 1881 in Washington, DC, by a disgruntled political patronage office seeker named Charles Guiteau to convince Garfield’s successor, President Chester Arthur, to push Congress to enact the Civil Service Act. The law, also known as the Pendleton Act (ch. 27, 22 Stat. 403), was written by Vermont attorney Dorman Eaton. Eaton, an opponent of awarding most federal jobs to those who supported the winning presidential candidate, became the first chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
Although the Pendleton Act initially covered only 10 percent of the civil service, it eventually grew to encompass most of the regular and senior employee positions in the federal government. The Lloyd–La Follette Act of 1912 protected civil servants from political pressure by codifying what constituted “just cause” for firing a civil servant. Rights protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution were covered by the 1912 act. It was Senator Robert LaFollette (R-WI) who championed the rights of civil servants who brought attention to waste and abuse in government. The 1912 act constitutes, in fact, the first federal whistleblower protection law.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, (Pub.L. 95–454, 92 Stat. 1111) (CSRA), established further protections for the civil service, mainly as a result of the misuse of the civil service by Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. The U.S. Civil Service Commission was abolished and its functions were taken up by three new agencies: the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). The CSRA also created the Senior Executive Service (SES). The Foreign Service Act of 1980 created the Senior Foreign Service (SFS) within the State Department. The regular civil service, SES, and SFS fall under the umbrella of civil service protection laws.
The MSPB is empowered to hear cases from civil servants who have been disciplined or relieved of their duties because of their political activities or affiliations. Federal employees are also empowered to appeal unfavorable MSPB decisions to federal courts of appeal and, ultimately, the Supreme Court. This layer of protection covers all political activity outside of the prohibitions enacted by the Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibits civil servants from running for office, soliciting or receive political contributions, and engaging in political activities while on duty or on federal property. However, the Hatch Act Reform Amendments of 1993 extend protections to civil servants who, on their own time, participate in political management or political campaigns.
The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, prohibits any government official from retaliating against a civil servant who reports on instances of fraud, waste, and abuse by government departments or agencies. President Barack Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive 19 (PPD-19), extended whistleblower protections to civil servants having access to classified information.
Trump’s repeated threats to fire federal employees who fall under civil service protection laws and revoke the security clearances of particular employees involved in investigations of his administration as part of their official duties are patent violations of the civil service protection laws enacted since the Arthur administration. Trump, by law, cannot take action against any of the current 2.79 million federal government employees that is “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.”
While former federal government employees, who are threatened by Trump with revocation of transactional security clearances that grant temporary access to specific types of information for participation in meetings, government panels and commissions, advisory committees, seminars, and war games, have no legal recourse through civil service protections, they can file civil tort claims against Trump for defamation and resultant loss of honoraria or special government employee earnings.
Trump violated federal civil service protection laws in firing federal employees for political reasons. These include acting Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI director James Comey, FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, and FBI special agent Peter Strzok. Trump’s threat to fire former Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who currently works in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, would also constitute a violation of civil service protections. Trump’s implied threats to revoke the security clearances of former government employees who are special government employees, such as Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors Mueller hired from the private sector, might provide them with legal causes of action against Trump pursuant to civil service protection laws that extend to special employees.
It took the assassination of President Garfield to bring attention to the politicization of the federal civil service. Trump’s actions, if successful, will make the death of Garfield, at the hands of a political plum job seeker, meaningless.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
