22 U.S.C. § 3946
Section 3946 · Career appointments
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Palmer v. Shultz (1987)
Most recently applied in 131 Fed. Cl. 522 - Beberman v. United States (April 2017)
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.
Before receiving a career appointment in the Service, an individual shall first serve under a limited appointment as a career candidate for a trial period of service prescribed by the Secretary. During such trial period of service, the Secretary shall decide whether—
(1) to offer a career appointment to the candidate under section 3943 of this title, or
(2) to recommend to the President that the candidate be given a career appointment under section 3942 of this title.
Decisions by the Secretary under subsection (a) of this section shall be based upon the recommendations of boards, established by the Secretary and composed entirely or primarily of career members of the Service, which shall evaluate the fitness and aptitude of career candidates for the work of the Service.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of the Secretary or the Foreign Service Grievance Board under section 4137 of this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1987—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 100–204 added subsec. (c).
Effective Date of 1987 Amendment
Section 181(e) of Pub. L. 100–204 provided that: “The amendments made by this section [amending this section and sections 4010 and 4137 of this title] shall not apply with respect to any grievance in which the Board has issued a final decision pursuant to section 1107 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4137) before the date of enactment of this Act [Dec. 22, 1987].”