Federal Career Intern Program v. Veterans Preference

Remember that case I wrote about back in October, where a veteran who had been denied a job the Defense Department filled with people from the Federal Career Intern Program sued the department on the grounds they hadn't appropriately factored in his veterans' preference? It looks like the veteran in question, Stephen Gingery, got a pretty good Christmas present. The federal circuit court panel that was hearing the case has reversed the Merit Systems Protection Board decision that DOD had not violated veterans' preference by filling the jobs with FCIP candidates. No word yet on how the court views the Bush administration's sweeping claims of executive power to determine which jobs are competitive and which are not, a central element in the administration's defense in the case.