The federal government began administering a civil service exam to applicants in 1974 to hire individuals based on merit alone. The exam, called the Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE), measured cognitive and other skills in applicants.
A group of black and Hispanic Americans filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) because they failed the test at higher rates than white applicants.
OPM contended that PACE had “quickly proved an effective way of predicting future job performance, thereby increasing the efficiency and capability of the federal workforce.”
After the lawsuit, OPM settled the case, signing a consent decree in 1981 to get rid of the test because of “disparate impact” on blacks and Hispanics. The settlement effectively ended civil service exams in government.
But that era is behind us. OPM filed a motion in March to terminate the consent decree.
America First Legal (AFL) announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has terminated the 43-year-old consent decree.
The federal government has been unshackled and can return to the days of considering merit — and not race or sex — when hiring individuals.
“We are grateful to American Moment and Feds for Freedom for their willingness to step up and challenge this unconstitutional consent decree that has worked for over 40 years to make the federal government less effective and less capable of hiring based on merit alone,” said Nick Barry, senior counsel at AFL. “The Trump Administration has achieved a great win for the American People here, and we are happy to have been able to help.”
The Center for Urban Renewal and Education recently endorsed federal lawmakers’ efforts to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order that bars disparate impact claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
