The Justice Department announced that a D.C. judge terminated a 44-year-old consent decree that required federal agencies to seek approval before using employment tests, marking a significant shift in federal hiring practices.
The move dismantles a Carter-era policy that critics say prioritized racial outcomes over merit in government recruitment.
The 1981 consent decree in Luevano v. Ezell imposed strict testing procedures on the Office of Personnel Management and all federal agencies, requiring permission before implementing employee tests to ensure equal outcomes across racial groups. The OPM oversees federal workforce policies affecting 2.2 million civilian employees.
“For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Today, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit—not race.”
The original lawsuit was brought by interest groups representing federal employees in 1979. The resulting decree established what officials now call “draconian” review procedures for employment testing.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia echoed Dhillon’s sentiment.
“It’s simple, competence and merit are the standards by which we should all be judged; nothing more and nothing less,” Pirro said.
She added: “It’s about time people are judged, not by their identity, but instead ‘by the content of their character.'”
“We’re making civil service great again,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told The Daily Wire on Friday.
Kupor predicted the change would attract higher-quality candidates to government positions. “We’re going to be able to attract really, really good people, because they’re going to be fairly tested for their merit,” he said.
The director also emphasized reduced hiring bias through objective standards.
“It also really does eliminate a lot of potential for a bias in the hiring process if you actually use objective standards,” Kupor stated. “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.”
The dismissal represents a broader shift in federal diversity policies. The Justice Department characterized the original decree as based on “flawed and outdated theories of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”