End FBI background checks, abolish peremptory strikes.

• Author: Branch, Taylor
• Position: Ideas on changing the government

My contemporary files are haphazard and my brain is rusty on applications of the Monthly gospel, so long have I been soaking in the racial and religious affairs of 30 years ago. Removed from public debate--in fact just now learning who Tim Russert is--I have no burning policy changes in mind beyond the desire for a birth of democracy in Haiti, which calls not really for reform but for an application of will. My reform proposals are eccentric leftovers, perfect for the beginning of a president's third term.

* End FBI Background Checks

This practice is an appendage of the Cold War. Truman, having thwarted J. Edgar Hoover's ridiculous ambition to be in charge of foreign intelligence, gave him as a consolation prize the government employee loyalty program. To ensure the fitness of public officials, Hoover naturally used dragnet interviews, faceless accusers, and other Star Chamber methods. Hearings and public witnesses were set aside as too trusting, sloppy, and dangerous in a world of enemies. Without Hoover's vigilance over the government, people feared, Klaus Fuchs would worm his way into David Gergen's office and sell secrets to Saddam long before anyone figured him for a spy.

The background check is what's left of the loyalty program. Americans take it for granted that no one can be considered for any job, from Supreme Court Justice to deputy assistant secretary, until hordes of highly trained criminal agents have interviewed their kindergarten teachers, all in strictest confidence. Aside from giving every administration some cover for molasses-slow appointments--"We're waiting for the FBI check"--this process has no positive value. It wastes time. For the public, it gives a false, machine-like quality to government appointments. From all angles--senators, citizens, reporters, neighbors--we don't take as seriously the citizenship duty to help evaluate our nominees because we leave responsibility to the FBI.

For the FBI itself, background checks are a senseless diversion from its statutory mission to investigate federal crime. They are also a holdover of Hoover's political agenda, an invitation to corruption by government-wide dossier. No one ever discusses the exact percentage of FBI agents detailed to background investigations, in part, I think, because disclosure opens the subject of an uncomfortable, incompatible FBI mission. The lingering secrecy is a reminder of potential damage to the FBI's performance and reputation. A reform...