My clients frequently ask me how the
Social Security Administration (“SSA”) selects the Judges to hear their disability
claim. Up until July 10, 2018, Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ”) were hired
through a competitive process that was conducted by the Office of Personnel
Management. It involved an application, a series of online and in-person tests
that took place in the D.C. area, followed by a structured interview. The
process was lengthy and could take a full year. Once all the results were in,
the ALJ candidates would receive a score. If the score was high enough, the candidate
would be placed on an ALJ register and potentially receive an interview at one
of the Federal agencies looking to hire an ALJ, if the location of position matched
a location that the ALJ candidate selected as an area he or she would serve.
This all changed on July 10 2018,
however. On said date, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order excepting ALJs from competitive
service and assigned the hiring process of ALJs to the individual agencies where
they would serve. Unfortunately, as the Office of Personnel Management has
historically competitively screened the ALJ candidates, the individual agencies
do not have a process in place for hiring ALJs at this time. The fear is this can
impact the already exceedingly long backlogs at the hearing offices.
This significant order was issued at least
in part due to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lucia v.
Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 17-130 (June 21, 2018) which
questioned whether ALJs had been properly appointed in keeping in line with the
Appointment Clause of the Constitution. The fear of course is that replacing
the hiring of ALJs with a noncompetitive or meritless process will open the
door to a political cronyism.
A bill has been introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Susan Collins,
R-Maine, to restore a competitive process that would be overseen by the Office
of Personnel Management, but defer to the Lucia
decision by requiring that an agency head make the final appointment of the
ALJ.
All we know for now is that ALJ candidates
who have already been on the hiring register received emails this week letting
them know that the register was now closed. Other than that, there is a lot of
speculation as to the next steps the agencies will take to hire new judges and
to whether the proposed bill will get the traction it needs to restore the ALJ
hiring process back to a competitive format.
Got
a question about SSDI or SSI that you need us to answer? Please check out our
website at www.westcoastdisability.com
. We try to provide you with helpful information on our website that will allow
you to successfully navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel
free to email me your questions at megan@westcoastdisability.com or
call me at (800) 459-3017 x 103.
