Civil Service Reform Act

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 is the federal law that overhauled the management of the U.S. civil service and established the framework still governing federal employment disputes. It created the MSPB to adjudicate appeals by federal employees and the Office of Special Counsel to investigate prohibited personnel practices, channeling many workplace grievances, including some constitutional claims, through these administrative bodies rather than directly into federal court. Whether that channeling applied to a First Amendment challenge was the central question in Margolin v. National Association of Immigration Judges, which the Supreme Court resolved in 2026 by directing the judges to use the administrative system.