5 U.S.C. § 2103
Section 2103 · The excepted service
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 45 court decisions — leading case Rosete v. Office of Personnel Management (1995)
Most recently applied in Kenneth Erdel v. Department of the Army (December 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) For the purpose of this title, the “excepted service” consists of those civil service positions which are not in the competitive service or the Senior Executive Service.
(b) As used in other Acts of Congress, “unclassified civil service” or “unclassified service” means the “excepted service”.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
The section is supplied for convenience. The “excepted service” has come to mean all employees not in the competitive service, for whatever reason.
Amendments
1978—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 95–454 inserted reference to Senior Executive Service.
Effective Date of 1978 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 95–454 effective 9 months after Oct. 13, 1978, and congressional review of provisions of sections 401 through 412 of Pub. L. 95–454, see section 415 of Pub. L. 95–454, set out as an Effective Date note under section 3131 of this title.