Via FAS – President Trump Freezes Federal Civil Service Hiring, CRS Legal Sidebar, January 26, 2017

“While the President possesses a certain amount of control over the executive branch, various statutory and constitutional provisions impose important limits on the President’s authority over the civil service. These statutory and constitutional parameters can set the boundary for the proper scope of any hiring freeze. For example, the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) provides procedural protections for federal employees – but not agency heads – who have already entered government service. The Act requires specific mechanisms for the removal of civil service employees currently serving in the federal government, including that these employees may not be unilaterally removed by the President. In other words, once an individual qualifies as a federal employee, he may not be removed from federal employment except through the procedures outlined in the CSRA. Further, the CSRA’s provision of restrictions on when federal employees may be removed bestows a constitutional property interest in those individuals’ continued employment. And the Due Process Clause provides that the government may not deprive individuals of this property interest without providing certain procedures…”