At-Will Employment: Origins, Applications, Exceptions and Expansions in the Public Service

Abstract

The author describes the development of the employment at will doctrine in American law and the creation of statutory and judicial exceptions to ameliorate its effects. Legal scholarship criticizing and defending the doctrine is reviewed, as are reform initiatives. Against this backdrop, the author considers the expansion of at-will employment to the civil service workforce. The author concludes that constitutional objections to the expansion will not succeed in halting it, and predicts that this expansion will have a detrimental effect on the transparency of governmental operations and management.