Back to the Supreme Court of the 1930s, in American Purpose, by Paul Verkuil, Aug 20, 2024
The conservative Supreme Court poses a challenge to the administrative state not seen for a century.

Schedule F Can’t Be Beaten in the Courts, in American Purpose by Don Kettl, Aug 16, 2024
Trump’s plan for civil service reform may be unwise and unethical but it is not unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s Assault on the Administrative State, August 5, 2024
Paul Verkuil is a distinguished administrative law expert, former chair of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), dean of the laws schools at Tulane and the University of Miami, and President of the College of William and Mary. In this interview he speaks about a number of recent Supreme Court cases like Loper Bright v. Raimdondo that ended Chevron Deference and SEC v. Jarkesy, as well as the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 that plans to revive Schedule F that would permit firing of civil servants.

John Dilulio: A Second Trump Term and the Civil Service, July 9, 2024
What should we make of Trump’s plans for the federal bureaucracy in a second term? John Dilulio shares his perspective.

The Importance of Removal Restrictions in a Schedule F World, June 10, 2024
A second Trump presidency would threaten employment protections crucial to ensuring that governmental decisions are based on independent expert advice.

Your Federal Life, podcast from May 29, 2024
Your Federal Life, podcast from June 12, 2024
“It’s been revoked for years, but Schedule F is still on the minds of many federal employees, especially as the nation nears a presidential election with former President Trump on the ballot. The Schedule F executive order tried to address what Trump officials saw as workforce accountability issues, by making certain career employees easier to fire and replace. Critics say Schedule F was the wrong approach to civil service reform. Now a new working group has laid out proposals for what members believes is a better vision for the future federal workforce. Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman got more from former dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, Don Kettl.”

By Don Moynihan, May 23, 2024
”A bipartisan group of government experts warns about the risks of Schedule F.”
Schedule F is not just bad - it is sidelining a real agenda to modernize state capacity

In Government Executive, May 21, 2024
“Governance experts launch a group to oppose Schedule F” The new organization hopes to offer a consensus way forward on civil service reform issues in addition to opposing efforts to politicize the federal workforce.

Written by Nora Sulots at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, May 21, 2024
“Stanford Scholar Issues Call to Action to Protect and Reform the U.S. Civil Service: A new working group led by Francis Fukuyama seeks to protect and reform the U.S. civil service by promoting nonpartisan, effective, and adaptable workforce practices while opposing politicization efforts like ‘Schedule F.’”

Taylor & Francis Online, Aug 25, 2023
The term “deep state” originally referred to the hidden security bureaucracies in countries like Turkey and Egypt with sinister overtones. The term has been applied by American conservatives to the existing permanent US bureaucracy, which they argue is exerting tyrannical control over citizens and needs to be destroyed root and branch. The fact is that the US administrative state is highly transparent and plays a critical role in delivering services and outcomes that citizens demand. Modern government cannot function without a high degree of delegation to bureaucratic agents; as such the US “deep state” needs to be defended and not vilified. There are several critical mechanisms for democratic principals to exert control over bureaucratic agents. While there are instances of bureaucratic over-reach, the US system provides a number of checks on agency power that are under-utilised. A separate problem lies in under-delegation, where political principals write detailed rules constraining bureaucratic autonomy in ways that hinder effective and timely government action. Future efforts by conservatives to undermine the “deep state” will result in grave weakening of American government and return the country to the 19th century patronage system.