## Notes from 23 June 2025 [[2025-06-22|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2025-06-24|Next note →]] Today I read [[Paul Verkuil]]’s [essay](https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-slow-death-of-effective-government) on [[Francis Fukuyama]]’s Persuasion platform. Beyond dissecting the Supreme Court’s farce of carving out the Fed from “for-cause” protections for career civil servants, the most interesting insight to me is that the modern U.S. civil service rests on a deliberate balance between merit and democratic oversight - instituted by the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act through a split model where [[U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)|OPM]] handles executive HR and the bipartisan Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) retains independent review of dismissals and career-ladder decisions. That equilibrium, mirrored in many countries, ensures performance accountability without raw political intervention. By chipping away at MSPB’s safeguards, the Court isn’t just rewriting administrative law - it’s undermining a historic political bargain with far-reaching consequences.