1. No person shall be appointed or employed to enter the civil service,
classified in accordance with section 163 of the Revised Statutes and
under the "Act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United
States," approved January 16, 1883, until he shall have passed an
examination or shall have been shown to be specially exempted therefrom
by said act or by an exception to this rule set forth in connection with
the rules regulating admission to the branch of the service he seeks to
enter.
2. No noncompetitive examination shall be held except under the
following conditions:
(_a_) The failure of competent persons to be, after due notice,
competitively examined, thus making it impracticable to supply to the
appointing officer in due time the names of persons who have passed a
competitive examination.
(_b_) That a person has been during one year or longer in a place
excepted from examination, and the appointing or nominating officer
desires the appointment of such person to a place not excepted.
(_c_) That a person has served two years continuously since July
16, 1883, in a place in the departmental service below or outside
the classified service, and the appointing officer desires, with the
approval of the President, upon the recommendation of the Commission,
to promote such person into the classified service because of his
faithfulness and efficiency in the position occupied by him, and because
of his qualifications for the place to which the appointing officer
desires his promotion.
(_d_) That an appointing or nominating officer desires the
examination of a person to test his fitness for a classified place which
might be filled under exceptions to examination declared in connection
with the rules regulating admission to the classified service.
(_e_) That the Commission, with the approval of the President, has
decided that such an examination should be held to test fitness for any
particular place requiring technical, professional, or scientific
knowledge, special skill, or peculiar ability, to test fitness for which
place a competitive examination can not, in the opinion of the
Commission, be properly provided.
(_f_) That a person who has been appointed from the copyist
register wishes to take the clerk examination for promotion to a place
the salary of which is not less than $1,000 per annum.
(_g_) To test the fitness of a person for a place to which his
transfer has been requested.
(_h_) When the exigencies of the service require such examination
for promotion as provided by clause 6 of this rule.
3. All applications for examination must be made in form and manner
prescribed by the Commission.
4. No person serving in the Army or Navy shall be examined for admission
to the classified service until the written consent of the head of the
Department under which he is enlisted shall have been communicated to
the Commission.
No person who is an applicant for examination or who is an eligible
in one branch of the classified service shall at the same time be an
applicant for examination in any other branch of said service.
5. The Commission may refuse to examine an applicant who would be
physically unable to perform the duties of the place to which he desires
appointment. The reason for any such action must be entered on the
minutes of the Commission.
6. For the purpose of establishing in the classified civil service the
principle of compulsory competitive examination for promotion, there
shall be, so far as practicable and useful, compulsory competitive
examinations of a suitable character to test fitness for promotion; but
persons in the classified service who were honorably discharged from the
military or naval service of the United States, and the widows and
orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors, shall be exempt from such
examinations.
The Commission may make regulations, applying them to any part of the
classified service, under which regulations all examinations for
promotion therein shall be conducted and all promotions be made; but
until regulations in accordance herewith have been applied to any part
of the classified service promotions therein shall be made in the manner
provided by the rules applicable thereto. And in any part of the
classified service in which promotions are made under examination as
herein provided the Commission may in special cases, if the exigencies
of the service require such action, provide noncompetitive examinations
for promotion.
Persons who were in the classified civil service on July 16, 1883, and
persons who have been since that date or may be hereafter put into that
service by the inclusion of subordinate places, clerks, and officers,
under the provisions of section 6 of the act to regulate and improve the
civil service of the United States, approved January 16, 1883, shall be
entitled to all rights of promotion possessed by persons of the same
class or grade appointed after examination under the act referred to
above.
7. No question in any examination shall be so framed as to elicit
information concerning the political or religious opinions or
affiliations of competitors, and no discrimination in examination,
certification, or appointment shall be made by the Commission, the
examiners, or the appointing or nominating officer in favor of or
against any applicant, competitor, or eligible because of his political
or religious opinions or affiliations. The Commission, the examiners,
and the appointing or nominating officer shall discountenance all
disclosures of such opinions or affiliations by or concerning any
applicant, competitor, or eligible; and any appointing or nominating
officer who shall make inquiries concerning or in any other way attempt
to ascertain the political or religious opinions or affiliations of any
eligible, or who shall discriminate in favor of or against any eligible
because of the eligible's political or religious opinions or
affiliations, shall be dismissed from office.