SCOTUS killed the civil service

In its decision in Trump et al. v Wilcox et al., the six right-wing extremists on the Roberts SCOTUS stripped independent federal agencies of their independence. In principle, the next president could restore independence to these agencies, but from now on, such decisions are tenuous at best:

“With unitary executive theory, Congress cannot write robust new legislation that modernizes the civil service and stops politicization. A President could just ignore it. Even if Trump leaves office, and a new President looks to restore nonpartisan competence, their promises are only good for four or eight years before another President can come in and rip up the terms of their employment. And over time, why would even a good government President invest effort in restoring capacity if their successor can undermine it?

 

“With unitary executive theory, the public sector becomes permanently viewed as an unstable and chaotic workplace that we are seeing now. The most capable potential employees decide its not worth the bother, and the workforce becomes a mix of people who cannot get a job elsewhere, and short term political appointees.”

Republicans have long mocked government service, and now they can make government a mockery. The “unitary executive” theory they subscribe to is just a fancy word for dictatorial power.

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/why-the-supreme-court-decision-on

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