Last week, the President issued a new Executive Order designed to greatly politicize the federal civil service. Falsely couched as holding civil servants “accountable”, the order creates a new category “F” for employees in positions that influence policy that waives qualifications and competitive hiring and waives the need for cause when firing an employee. Read more >
Latest Scientific Integrity Posts

A New and Direct Assault on Federal Scientists: an Executive Order Designed to Politicize Public Service
October 28, 2020 11:53 AM EDT

Supreme Court Allows Census to Be Cut Short—and Considers Defying 150 Years of Precedent
October 21, 2020 12:51 PM EDT
On Tuesday, October 13, the Supreme Court ruled that the Census Bureau could end the 2020 census count early, marking an abrupt end to a months-long tussle over the Bureau’s census timeline. Then, only a few days later, the Court announced that it would consider the administration’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census, a move that would defy 150 years of constitutional precedent. Read more >

The Postal Service is Under Attack. Our Research Shows Who This Hurts Most
October 19, 2020 10:38 AM EDT
Our recent analysis of USPS records, which we received via Freedom of Information Act requests, suggests that the number of mail-delivery complaints has risen since March, especially in communities of color. Read more >

Hysterectomies at an ICE Facility and the Complicity of Science in Reproductive Rights Violations
September 29, 2020 2:52 PM EDT
This month, news broke alleging that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Georgia is performing medically unnecessary hysterectomies in immigrant women. A whistleblower has come forward claiming that a doctor at the facility is known as a “uterus collector” and several women have said they had hysterectomies performed on them without explanation. Today further details and more firsthand accounts have emerged. The allegations must be fully investigated, but it is clear that the scientific community must not be silent about these horrific claims. Read more >

Superfund Site Cleanups Ignore Communities of Color
September 18, 2020 3:08 PM EDT
Superfund sites deleted from the list during 2008-2016 are clustered in urban areas in the Midwest and the Northeast, and two sites were deleted in Puerto Rico and St Thomas (US Virgin Islands). Census tracts hosting these facilities have large percentages of people of color. In contrast, sites deleted since 2017 are located in communities with low percentages of people of color. Read more >