Judicial patronage networks can protect individual employees against civil-service reform

Evidence

Judges, he learned, were men, too, for all their black robes—and often they were men who had been dressed in those robes by Tammany. When certain department heads refused to hold competitive examinations for elevator-operator positions, the commission ordered the operators dismissed. One, who ran an elevator in the Bronx County Courthouse, brought suit to enjoin the dismissal, arguing that because prisoners rode in his elevator on their way to and from courtrooms, his job was “sensitive” and “exceptional.” Of course it was, the judge said reassuringly—and granted the injunction. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 360

Categorization

• XREF: Recalls the court-packing and ‘manufactured legal reasoning’ theme from the system/social-structure readings — the elevator case is a vivid miniature of law serving patronage. — connects to: Political patronage threatened to erode civil service stability and guarantees; Patronage appointments to top civil service posts risked politicizing the service permanently — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 806

Broader Connections

• Patronage appointments to top civil service posts risked politicizing the service permanently #expands (0.82) — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 806
• Political patronage threatened to erode civil service stability and guarantees #qualifies (0.80)