{"id":148450,"date":"2025-08-04T14:30:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T19:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=148450"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:59:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:59:31","slug":"after-46-years-doj-ruling-restores-merit-based-hiring-by-federal-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/after-46-years-doj-ruling-restores-merit-based-hiring-by-federal-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"After 46 years, DOJ ruling restores merit-based hiring by federal agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>by<\/em><\/span> <span style=\"color: #006699;\"><strong>WorldTribune<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Staff<\/em><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>, August 4, 2025 <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Real World News<\/span><\/a><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice on Friday terminated a Carter Administration rule that hamstrung federal agencies from conducting merit-based hiring.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_148451\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-148451\" style=\"width: 352px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-148451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/harmeet.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"352\" height=\"225\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-148451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon \/ DOJ photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The DOJ&#8217;s Civil Rights Division ended a Carter era decree that required federal agencies to get permission before implementing testing of job applicants to determine who was the best person for the position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division. \u201cToday, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit \u2014 not race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A DOJ press release noted that, in Luevano v. Ezell, the Court dismissed a consent decree based on a lawsuit initially brought by interest groups representing federal employees in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decree entered in 1981 imposed draconian test review and implementation procedures on the Office of Personnel Management \u2014 and consequently all other federal agencies \u2014 requiring them to receive permission prior to using any tests for potential federal employees, in an attempt to require equal testing outcomes among all races of test-takers,&#8221; the DOJ said.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump challenged the decree when he took office in January, which forced the reopening of the case.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump Administration argued that, in light of the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision against affirmative action, it was likely that the decree was no longer considered to be constitutionally valid. Luevano, who is still living though the original judge is not, agreed to terminate the decree.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s simple, competence and merit are the standards by which we should all be judged; nothing more and nothing less,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. \u201cIt\u2019s about time people are judged, not by their identity, but instead by the content of their character.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/freepressfoundation.org\/fight-back\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ad3434;\">Support<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"color: #333399;\"><a style=\"color: #333399;\" href=\"https:\/\/freepressfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Free Press Foundation<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by WorldTribune Staff, August 4, 2025 Real World News The Department of Justice on Friday terminated a Carter Administration rule that hamstrung federal agencies from conducting merit-based hiring. The DOJ&#8217;s Civil Rights Division ended a Carter era decree that required federal agencies to get permission before implementing testing of job applicants to determine who was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":149249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,134,10,11,12,5],"tags":[322,323,324,6],"class_list":["post-148450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusives","category-daily-brief","category-top-stories","category-washington","category-world-links","category-world-tribune","tag-after-46-years","tag-doj-ruling-restores-merit-hiring-for-federal-agencies","tag-doj-ruling-restores-merit-based-hiring-by-federal-agencies","tag-worldtribune-com","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149250,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148450\/revisions\/149250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}