Civil‑Service Exams Return After 44 Years

The author says a long‑running consent‑decree regime that ended the federal PACE aptitude exam has finally lapsed/been undone, opening the door to validated, IQ‑like entry tests again. In its place, agencies had relied on self‑ratings and 'Direct Hiring Authority' name‑requests that entrenched insider selection. Paired with a second court ruling limiting agency autonomy, this signals a quiet shift back toward meritocratic hiring and tighter legal checks on the bureaucracy. — Restoring objective exams and trimming deference could reset who gets power inside the federal state and how accountable agencies are to law rather than internal networks.