Overview
- The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo Friday that says statutory provisions giving the Foreign Service Grievance Board final decision authority violate Article II and the Appointments Clause and that the Secretary of State must hold final review.
- Under the 1980 Foreign Service Act the FSGB could reverse discipline and reinstate career diplomats without Secretary or presidential override, a structure the OLC said the Constitution does not allow.
- OLC relied on the Supreme Court’s 2021 Arthrex decision and the Appointments Clause to argue that Board members, as inferior officers removable only for cause, cannot exercise unchecked executive power.
- The memo says the Board may continue to hear grievances but its favorable rulings will be treated as recommendations subject to Secretary of State review, a change that will require internal State Department adjustments and could prompt court or congressional responses.
- The shift cuts into long-standing due-process protections for Foreign Service employees, raises concerns from the American Foreign Service Association about politicization of personnel decisions, and could reshape accountability over U.S. diplomatic personnel.