5 U.S.C. § 3309
Section 3309 · Preference eligibles; examinations; additional points for
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 31 court decisions — leading case Abell v. Department of the Navy (2003)
Most recently applied in Jason Terry v. Department of the Air Force (December 2024)
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 preference eligible who receives a passing grade in an examination for entrance into the competitive service is entitled to additional points above his earned rating, as follows—
(1) a preference eligible under section 2108(3)(C)–(G) of this title—10 points; and
(2) a preference eligible under section 2108(3)(A)–(B) of this title—5 points.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Statutes at Large 5 U.S.C. 852 (1st sentence). June 27, 1944, ch. 287, §3 (less proviso), 58 Stat. 388. Jan. 19, 1948, ch. 1, §2, 62 Stat. 3. Dec. 27, 1950, ch. 1151, §2(a), 64 Stat. 1117. July 14, 1952, ch. 728, §2, 66 Stat. 627. Aug. 14, 1953, ch. 485, §1(a) “Sec. 3 (1st sentence)”, 67 Stat. 581. The word “competitive” is added before “service” for clarity. Application of this section to the excepted service in the executive branch and to the government of the District of Columbia, as provided in former section 858, is carried into section 3320.
Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.
Amendments
1997—Par. (2). Pub. L. 105–85 substituted “section 2108(3)(A)–(B)” for “section 2108(3)(A)”.
1967—Cl. (1). Pub. L. 90–83 substituted “section 2108(3)(C)–(G)” for “section 2108(3)(B)–(F).” See Historical and Revision Notes under section 3305 of this title.
Cross References
Definition of preference eligibles, see section 2108 of this title.
Points granted by this section to be included in determining order of entry on registers and lists of eligibles, see section 3313 of this title.
Regulations for administration of provisions giving preference to preference eligibles, see section 1302 of this title.
Seniority not affected by transfer of postal ten-point preference eligibles, see section 1005 of Title 39, Postal Service.