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In a move that could reshape the federal workforce into a lean, mean, merit-based machine, a D.C. judge on Friday finally put a bullet in the head of a 1981 court order that banned the government from using skills tests to screen job applicants. This seismic shift, one of President Donald Trump's potentially most enduring legacies, could drag the federal hiring process out of the dark ages and into the Ivy League.
Back in '81, Angel Luevano sued Uncle Sam over the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, a test designed to sift the cream of the crop from the flood of applicants vying for government jobs. Luevano claimed the test was a roadblock for blacks and Hispanics, keeping them out of federal jobs. In the twilight of Jimmy Carter's garbage presidency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) caved, agreeing to shelve the test for five years.
Fast-forward 44 years, and the "Luevano Consent Decree" was still inexplicably kicking, like a bureaucratic zombie refusing to die.
Enter the Trump administration, which in January threw a legal haymaker by challenging the dusty decree, a move that required cracking open a long-closed case where even the original judge had passed away. The administration argued the decree was dubious from the start and, with recent Supreme Court rulings torching affirmative action, utterly indefensible now. Court papers reveal Luevano, still alive, agreed to kill the decree. His lawyers, tied to Hispanic and black civil rights groups, didn't respond to requests for comment.
For nearly half a century, the feds have been hiring like a community college admitting students without glancing at SAT scores. "We’re making civil service great again," OPM Director Scott Kupor told conservative outlet The Daily Wire (DW) on Friday, barely containing his enthusiasm. This change could vault the government from safety-school mediocrity to elite status, letting agencies hire based on proven aptitude rather than self-aggrandizing resumes.
Kupor, in an exclusive chat with DW, said the move could mean better service for Americans, with agencies becoming more responsive and competent. "The lasting opportunity here is: can we change the culture of the workforce in the federal government? Can we make it a high-performance culture? That will definitely be the president’s legacy, if we can make that successful," he said.
Since the Professional and Administrative Career Examination and similar tests got the boot, the government leaned on "self-assessments," basically letting applicants brag about their skills with zero verification. It's like selecting a Vice President because she's, nothing else required.
Enter the Trump administration, which in January threw a legal haymaker by challenging the dusty decree, a move that required cracking open a long-closed case where even the original judge had passed away. The administration argued the decree was dubious from the start and, with recent Supreme Court rulings torching affirmative action, utterly indefensible now. Court papers reveal Luevano, still alive, agreed to kill the decree. His lawyers, tied to Hispanic and black civil rights groups, didn't respond to requests for comment.
For nearly half a century, the feds have been hiring like a community college admitting students without glancing at SAT scores. "We’re making civil service great again," OPM Director Scott Kupor told conservative outlet The Daily Wire (DW) on Friday, barely containing his enthusiasm. This change could vault the government from safety-school mediocrity to elite status, letting agencies hire based on proven aptitude rather than self-aggrandizing resumes.
Kupor, in an exclusive chat with DW, said the move could mean better service for Americans, with agencies becoming more responsive and competent. "The lasting opportunity here is: can we change the culture of the workforce in the federal government? Can we make it a high-performance culture? That will definitely be the president’s legacy, if we can make that successful," he said.
Since the Professional and Administrative Career Examination and similar tests got the boot, the government leaned on "self-assessments," basically letting applicants brag about their skills with zero verification. It's like selecting a Vice President because she's, nothing else required.
This system rewarded smooth talkers and outright liars, with job seekers now using AI or copy-pasting job requirements to claim they're perfect fits. Kupor called this lack of competency checks "crippling" in today's tech-driven world.
The decree's fallout was a textbook case of "disparate impact" gone wild, the idea that anything producing racially uneven outcomes is inherently racist [except in the NBA]. But it didn’t just hurt minorities; it left the government unable to separate a stellar white applicant from a dud.
The decree's fallout was a textbook case of "disparate impact" gone wild, the idea that anything producing racially uneven outcomes is inherently racist [except in the NBA]. But it didn’t just hurt minorities; it left the government unable to separate a stellar white applicant from a dud.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division repped the government, while OPM General Counsel Andrew Kloster told DW no concessions were made to end the decree. "They just flat out agreed," he said. "It would not have happened without the original named plaintiff agreeing to it and the judge agreeing to accept it."
Kloster didn’t mince words: "This is really kind of an understanding that disparate impact as a way to measure things is not the law of the land anymore. You have to actually show real discrimination. The explicit argument was that the objective tests themselves were racially biased, and obviously that's bogus."
What’s next? OPM hasn’t decided on a universal aptitude test, but specific roles—like computer programmers—will likely face tailored exams. No more asking coders how good they are; they’ll have to prove it with a real coding test. Kupor said the old system, at best, was a random crapshoot and, at worst, a breeding ground for cronyism—the very thing the decree was meant to prevent.
"We’re going to be able to attract really, really good people, because they're going to be fairly tested for their merit," Kupor said. "It also really does eliminate a lot of potential for a bias in the hiring process if you actually use objective standards." He summed it up: "This is a win for fairness, as well as a win for getting American people the ability to get people with the appropriate skills into the right jobs."
Kloster didn’t mince words: "This is really kind of an understanding that disparate impact as a way to measure things is not the law of the land anymore. You have to actually show real discrimination. The explicit argument was that the objective tests themselves were racially biased, and obviously that's bogus."
What’s next? OPM hasn’t decided on a universal aptitude test, but specific roles—like computer programmers—will likely face tailored exams. No more asking coders how good they are; they’ll have to prove it with a real coding test. Kupor said the old system, at best, was a random crapshoot and, at worst, a breeding ground for cronyism—the very thing the decree was meant to prevent.
"We’re going to be able to attract really, really good people, because they're going to be fairly tested for their merit," Kupor said. "It also really does eliminate a lot of potential for a bias in the hiring process if you actually use objective standards." He summed it up: "This is a win for fairness, as well as a win for getting American people the ability to get people with the appropriate skills into the right jobs."
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