Constitutional Law

ACS Criticizes DOJ Hiring Practices

ACS Criticizes DOJ Use of Politics in Hiring for Career Honors, Intern Programs

Encouraged By Attorney General Mukasey’s Decision To Follow Report’s Recommendations

Washington, D.C. – The executive director of the American Constitution Society today expressed concern over a government report showing that top officials at the Department of Justice passed over qualified attorneys and law students for its career honors and summer intern programs because of their affiliations with progressive legal associations, including the American Constitution Society.

“I’m dismayed at the findings of the Inspector General’s report on hiring practices at the Department of Justice,” said ACS Executive Director Lisa Brown. “It was a grave mistake to turn over to political appointees non-political hiring decisions that historically have been left to career employees. It is entirely appropriate to take ideology and past political affiliations into account when hiring political appointees, but it corrupts the system when it occurs with career positions. The IG’s report speaks for itself regarding the consequences that flowed from this regrettable practice."

Among the findings from the report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) was that membership in ACS was detrimental to attorneys and law students seeking work in the Justice Department. The OIG/OPR report, for example, found that 12 of 13 applicants for the DOJ’s Summer Law Intern Program who were affiliated with ACS were “deselected” for job interviews, while none of the 12 applicants who were Federalist Society members received such treatment and all did receive interviews. The report’s data similarly showed that all seven candidates for the Honors Program who indicated that they were ACS members “were deselected by the Screening Committee for interviews, while 2 of 29 applicants who indicated that they were members of the Federalist Society were deselected.”

The OIG/OPR report described the Justice Department’s Honors Program as “the exclusive means by which the Department hires recent law school graduates and judicial law clerks who do not have prior legal experience.” The Summer Law Intern Program, according to the report, is “the Department’s hiring program for paid summer interns.” The report further explained that “both DOJ policy and civil service law prohibit discrimination in hiring for DOJ career positions on the basis of political affiliations.”

In a statement released today regarding the offices’ report, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said he would “continue to make clear, that the consideration of political affiliations in the hiring of career Department employees is impermissible and unacceptable. The joint report issued today contains additional recommendations aimed at ensuring that political and ideological affiliations are not inappropriately used to evaluate candidates for these programs; I accept, and have directed the implementation, of all those recommendations.”

“I applaud Attorney General Mukasey’s commitment to comply with the report’s recommendations,” Brown said.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on June 24, 2008 (boomark / email).