Earlier this year the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) released new recommendations on the future of hiring Administrative Law Judges (ALJ), after the hiring process was changed due to a Supreme Court decision and an executive order by President Donald Trump. The ALJs preside over thousands of hearings annually, specifically disability hearings related to Social Security disability benefits. Because there are so many ALJ positions to keep staffed, it requires Social Security to appoint numerous new ALJs each year.
As an independent federal agency, ACUS is responsible for bringing together expert representatives from the public and private sectors to recommend improvements to the administrative process and procedure. Below are the recommendations ACUS made regarding the hiring of new ALJs for Social Security and other federal agencies.
Recommendation No. 1: To ensure the widest possible awareness of their Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) vacancies and an optimal and broad pool of applicants, agencies should announce their vacancies on the government-wide employment website (currently operated by the Office of Personnel Management as USAJOBS), their own websites, and/or other websites that might reach a diverse range of potential ALJ applicants. Agencies that desire or require subject-matter, adjudicative, or litigation experience should also reach out to lawyers who practice in the field or those with prior experience as an adjudicator. Each agency should keep the application period open for sufficient time to achieve an optimal and broad pool of applicants.
Recommendation No. 2: Agencies should formulate and publish minimum qualifications and selection criteria for ALJ hiring. Those qualifications and criteria should include the factors specified in Executive Order 13,843 and the qualifications the agency deems important for service as an ALJ in the particular agency. The notice should distinguish between mandatory and desirable criteria.
Recommendation No. 3: Agencies should develop policies to review and assess ALJ applications. These policies might include the development of screening panels to select which applicants to interview, interview panels to select which applicants to recommend for appointment, or both kinds of panels. If used, such panels could include internal reviewers only or both internal and external reviewers, and could include overlapping members among the two types of panels or could include entirely different members. These policies might include procedures to evaluate applicants’ writing samples. If used, such writing samples could be submitted with the applicants’ initial applications, as part of a second round of submissions for applicants who meet the agencies’ qualifications expectations, or as part of a proctored writing assignment in connection with an interview.
Recommendation No. 4: The guidelines and procedures for the hiring of ALJs should be designed and administered to ensure the hiring of ALJs who will carry out the functions of the office with impartiality and maintain the appearance of impartiality.
