TRUMP’S REFORM OF THE ALJ HIRING PROCESS, discussed at the Yale Journal on Regulation blog here and here. “The changes to the hiring process are unsurprising. This term, in Lucia v. SEC, the Court held that ALJs are inferior officers, not employees, of the United States and accordingly must be appointed through the procedures listed in Article II of the Constitution—that is, they must be appointed by the President (with or without Senate approval), by heads of departments, or by the courts. The natural way to implement that holding is to exempt ALJs from the competitive selection process and leave the appointment of ALJs to the discretion of agency heads.”