The July 9th, 2025, NY Times front page story announced the historic post-session US Supreme court decision, overturning the lower court decision, upholding the president’s request for the downgrading and restructuring of federal agencies including 11 (-1) cabinet departments and 19 (-1) independent and regulatory agencies, and allows for mass firing of associated federal career service employees. (SCOTUSblog).

This monumental decision, rendered without oral arguments, was ratified 8-1, with only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting in a vibrant rebuttal. Although this decision is temporary, it allows the Trump administration to move forward with an already paved plan for reformulating how the central government would operate, Project 25, “A Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” authored by the Heritage Foundation. (More on Project 2025: a synopsis by Democracy Forward, a crowd-sourced tracker, or the Authoritarian Playbook by Protect Democracy.) 

But the planned dismantling was already underway, including sweeping cuts at the Departments of State, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and the elimination of the Department of Education. The grim reaper had already been set on the road, wielding his scythe with abandon, eradicating federal programs and federal employee merit-based career service systems established and curated over decades to help the administrative state competently meet the evolving needs of its citizenry. 

For instance, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was established in 1978 to oversee the federal personnel system, encompassing fair hiring practices, job classification, compensation, training, and equal opportunity protections for all employees. It was designed to be a competent, rational, and nonpartisan entity implementing policies for our democracy. And for much of the last century, our administrative state and merit-based career system was admired and emulated by many countries around the world. 

Although the Supreme Court decision, 24A1174 Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees, is still only temporary, and there will be challenges through the courts by organizations such as public sector unions, and public interest groups focused on public policy (Federal News Network). It could take years to sort out the major damage to the system already occurring. What is looming through this dismantling is a return to the patronage system of the 19th century, which allows the chief executive to demand worker fealty, employing only loyal, committed partisan employees. 

In full disclosure, this is also personal for me, as it is likely for many readers. Some years ago, I was employed by OPM and in ensuing positions throughout my career, had the privilege of collaborating with many dedicated public employees. The real tragedy of this effort will be the extraordinary loss of competence and knowledge with the departure of these civil servants. And though there will be various constitutional challenges citing violations of separation of powers and circumvention of congressional decision-making authority, perhaps the greatest loss, and threat, is the devolution of checks and balances to presidential actions and capricious, irrational decision-making. There will be no easy or quick way to rebuild or reinstitute what has been dismantled.  

A present-day reimagining of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667), is apt; recalling the protagonist and existential gauntlets laid down: Free-will, obedience, acceptance, consequences. Is the US Supreme Court, imbued by Article III of the US Constitution with the responsibility to protect civil rights, enforce separation of powers, and executive and legislative overreach, abdicating its responsibility by capitulating in subordination to a protagonist that disavows responsibility to uphold the Constitution?

Call to action:

We need you.

UUSJ has set up a democracy action team and its workings to get congregants engaged, including an advocacy group that tracks the congressional legislative process, and opportunities to contact members of congress to be heard on issues important to you and the UU community. 

 

Bio

Kenneth Mitchell was a professor of political science at the Universities of Alabama and Mississippi State as well as a visiting professor of public law at the University of Warsaw. Ken also served as a human resource development researcher with OPM and a management consultant for the Computer Sciences Corporation, the IBM Corporation, and the Civil Service Commission of Kuwait. He is a member of the UUSJ Democracy Action Team and attends the 1st Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Maryland.