One thing you should remember is, administrative law judges in the Social Security system are the ones who hear disability cases and reviews. Making them political appointees means they can just deny claims across the board -- which is something the extreme right wants very badly.

From what I understand, this is likely to end up in SCOTUS. I wonder how that ends up?

This is the kind of all-out assault on the government is what you get when Republicans are in charge.

A lawyer friend wrote me last night:

This is just another incredibly depressing blow again an independent judiciary. Tens of hundreds of thousands of cases are heard before federal ALJs, including cases involving social security, immigration, employment discrimination, admiralty, advertising, antitrust, banking, communications, energy, environmental protection, food and drugs, health and safety, housing, interstate commerce, international trade, labor management relations, securities and commodities markets, disability and other benefits claims, and transportation.

According to the EO, agencies hiring ALJs will no longer have to go through the rigorous pooled hiring process, and the ALJs can be merely political appointments.

ALJs have always been viewed as above politics, unlike the appointment of federal judges. After the Kavanaugh nomination (some of my friends and former law professors went to school or worked with him, and declare him very nice, and very dangerous) and the clear contempt the Administration's lawyers are showing the federal courts on family separation,

I'm just ready to sit on a beach with a bottle of vodka and cry for our hijacked legal system.