CIVIL-SERVICE ACT.@

[22 Stat. L., 403.]

AN ACT To regulate and improve the civil service of the United

States.

of Commis

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- Appointment tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- sioners. bled, That the President is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three Commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. Said Commissioners shall hold no other official place under the United States. The President may remove any Commissioner; and vacancy in the position of Commissioner shall be so filled by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of Commissioners.

Removal of

any Commissioners.

traveling

The Commissioners shall each receive a salary of three Salaries and thousand five hundred dollars a year. And each of said expenses. Commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a Commissioner.

control of any of the heads of such departments. (22 Op. A. G., 62.)

The Commission not an executive departments, nor is it subject in anywise to the ment. The term "executive departments" in the federal statutes refers only to those departments specified in section 158, Revised Statutes, to which has since been added the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce and Labor. No board, commission, bureau, or office which is not expressly or by implication under the control of the head of one of the executive departments can be considered as belonging properly to an executive department. The Civil Service Commission is not attached in anywise to any of the executive depart

Constitutionality of civil-service laws.The civil-service laws are constitutional and valid. An appointment or employment in violation of the civil-service laws is illegal, and the authorities have no right to appropriate the public moneys to the payment for services rendered in pursuance of such illegal appointment or employment.-American and English Encyclopedia of Law, title, "Public officers."

a Definition.-Civil service is defined as the executive branch of the public service as distinguished from military, naval, legislative, and judicial.-(Century Dictionary.)

Duties of
Commissioners.

Rules.

SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said Commissioners: First. To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules shall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modifications thereof, into effect.

Authority of acts of the President.Where an act of Congress, establishing a general system, confers on the President the authority to do a specific act for the purpose of perfecting the means by which the system shall be carried into effect, the act of the President, when performed according to the terms of the statute, has all the validity and authority of the statute itself. (10 Op. A. G., 469.)

Power to prescribe rules.-There can be no doubt as to the power of Congress or any other legislative body to delegate to subordinate authorities the power to make rules and regulations within certain limits, which, when made, will have the force of law. Thus, corporations, municipal or private, may be authorized to make by-laws, and police commissioners, boards of health, and fire commissioners may be authorized to make regulations which have the effect of laws.

But if any rule prepared by this Commission, whether published by the President or not, should have the effect of repealing or modifying an act of Congress, it would be an act of legislation, and not a regulation of a mere executive character, which it was clearly the object of this law to authorize. It is a grave question whether Congress could delegate to the President, or to any board of commis

Competitive examinations.

sioners jointly with the President, the authority to do any act which is equivalent to legislation. (Woods v. Gary, Postmaster-General, Sup. Ct. D. C., Sept. 14, 1897. See also, Opinion of Justices, 138 Mass., 601.)

In a letter to the Commission of July 16, 1895, the President requested it to further a plan by which the Board of Commissioners for the District of Columbia may provide examinations for those seeking places under the District government so far as this may be done without thereby adding to the expenses of the Commission. The authority to hold such examinations was sustained by the court of appeals of the District of Columbia in an application for an injunction by J. Stewart Harrison et al. v. John C. Black et al.

In an executive order of December 17, 1907, the President directed that "upon the request of any Member of Congress the United States Civil Service Commission shall aid in testing the qualifications of applicants for designation for appointment in the United States Military or Naval academies, so far as this may be done without thereby adding to the expenses of the Commission."

Second. And, among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows:

First, for open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and so far as may be shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to dis

charge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed.

Section 4415, Revised Statutes, so far as it prescribes the method by which vacancies on the board of inspectors of

hulls of steam vessels shall be filled, was repealed by the civil-service act. (21 Op. A. G., 393.)

how filled.

ment.

Second, that all the offices, places, and employments so Vacancies, arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations. Third, appointments to the public service aforesaid in Apportionthe departments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. Every application for an Application for examination shall contain, among other things, a statement, under oath, setting forth his or her actual bona fide residence at the time of making the application, as well as how long he or she has been a resident of such place. Fourth, that there shall be a period of probation before Probation. any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid.

examination.

contributions

Fifth, that no person in the public service is for that Political reason under any obligations to contribute to any political and service. fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

Sixth, that no person in said service has any right to Coercion. use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body.

examinations.

Seventh, there shall be noncompetitive examinations in Noncompetitive all proper cases before the Commission, when competent persons do not compete, after notice has been given of the existence of the vacancy, under such rules as may be prescribed by the Commissioners as to the manner of giving notice.

changes in

Eighth, that notice shall be given in writing by the Notice of appointing power to said Commission of the persons service. selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the place of residence of such persons, of the rejection of any such persons after probation, of transfers, resignations, and removals, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said Commission.

Exceptions to rules.

Regulations for examinations.

Minutes of proceedings.

Investigations.

Annual report.

Chief examiner.

Secretary.

Stenographer

and messenger.

And any necessary exceptions from said eight fundamental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in connection with such rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual reports of the Commission.

Third. Said Commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the President, make regulations for, and have control of, such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same; and said Commission shall keep min utes of its own proceedings.

Fourth. Said Commission may make investigations concerning the facts, and may report upon all matters touching the enforcement and effects of said rules and regulations, and concerning the action of any examiner or board of examiners hereinafter provided for, and its own subordinates, and those in the public service, in respect to the execution of this act.

Fifth. Said Commission shall make an annual report to the President for transmission to Congress, showing its own action, the rules and regulations and the exceptions thereto in force, the practical effects thereof, and any suggestions it may approve for the more effectual accomplishment of the purposes of this act.

SEC. 3. That said Commission is authorized to employ a chief examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be, under its direction, to act with the examining boards, so far as practicable, whether at Washington or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity, and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. The chief examiner shall be entitled to receive a salary at the rate of three thousand dollars a year, and he shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty. The Commission shall have a secretary, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary of one thousand six hundred dollars per annum. It may, when necessary, employ a stenographer, and a messenger, who shall be paid, when employed, the former at the rate of one thousand six hundred dollars a year, and the latter at the rate of six hundred dollars a year. The Commission shall, at Washington, and in one or more places in each State and Territory where examinations are to take place, designate and select a suitable number of persons, not less than three, in the official service of the United States, residing in said State or Territory, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such persons