Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

CourtDepartment of Justice Office of Legal Counsel
DecidedJuly 8, 2009
StatusPublished

This text of Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (olc 2009).

Opinion

ELIGIBILITY OF A RETIRED MILITARY OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT AS ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISRATION

A retired military officer—and certainly one who has engaged in civilian pursuits after his retirement—is eligible for appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

July 8, 2009

MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT

You have asked for our opinion whether a retired military officer is eligible for appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”). Section 202 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, Pub. L. No. 85-568, 72 Stat. 426 (“Space Act”) (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. § 2472(a) (2006)), creates NASA and provides that it “shall be headed by an Administrator, who shall be appointed from civilian life by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” 42 U.S.C. § 2472(a) (emphasis added). The Space Act does not define the phrase “appointed from civilian life,” nor does it expressly address whether a retired military officer is eligible to be appointed as NASA Administrator.

On June 22, 2009, the President nominated Charles F. Bolden, Jr., a retired General in the United States Marine Corps, to be Administrator of NASA. See 155 Cong. Rec. S6898 (daily ed. June 22, 2009). General Bolden retired from the Marine Corps in 2003. He is at present the Chief Executive Officer of a private consulting firm.

We believe that a retired military officer—and certainly one who has engaged in civilian pursuits after his retirement—is eligible for appointment as Administrator of NASA. This conclusion is supported by the ordinary meaning of the phrase “from civilian life,” use of the phrase in other statutes, practice under such statutes, and longstanding Executive Branch precedent interpreting the phrase and similar words. We recognize that there are possible arguments to the contrary, but in our view these arguments, in the end, are unconvincing. *

I.

The Space Act establishes NASA as a “civilian agency,” whose activities “should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.” Pub. L. No. 85-568, §§ 101, 102(b). The statute requires the Administrator to come from “civilian life.” See id. § 202. It does not specifically address whether a retired military officer, who continues to hold a commission, would meet this qualification. Several arguments, however, support the conclusion that a retired military officer is eligible for appointment as Administrator of NASA.

First, the usual definition of “civilian” includes retired military personnel who are not on active duty. See American Heritage Dictionary (2009), available at

* This opinion is identical to one issued July 6, 2009, except that the earlier version inadvertently omitted one word. Opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel in Volume 33

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/civilian (defining “civilian” as “[a] person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the military”); Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009), available at http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/civilian (defining “civilian” as “one not on active duty in the armed services”); Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary 152 (7th ed. 1963) (defining “civilian” as “one not on active duty in a military, police, or fire-fighting force”). In its ordinary meaning, therefore, the phrase “appointed from civilian life” refers to a person who is not on active military duty at the time of appointment. A retired military officer who has ceased active military service falls within this class of persons. Thus, by the literal terms of the statute, Congress did not bar all retired military personnel from appointment.

Second, although Congress did not define in the Space Act which persons are considered to be in “civilian life,” the use of the phrase “appointed from civilian life” in other statutes supports the conclusion that the phrase generally does not disqualify retired military officers. In some statutes, as in the Space Act, Congress has limited eligibility for appointment to persons “from civilian life,” without specifying whether retired military officers are deemed in “civilian life.” See, e.g., 10 U.S.C.A. § 133(a) (West Supp. 2009) (requiring Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics to be “appointed from civilian life”); 15 U.S.C. § 633(b)(1) (2006) (requiring Administrator of Small Business Administration to be “appointed from civilian life”); 42 U.S.C. § 2286(b)(1) (2006) (requiring members of Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to be “appointed from civilian life”). In other statutes, however, Congress not only has directed that the appointee be “from civilian life,” but also has explicitly disqualified all retired military officers from appointment during a specified cooling-off period. These statutes support the conclusion that the phrase “from civilian life,” standing on its own, encompasses retired military officers.

For example, 10 U.S.C. § 113(a) (2006) requires that the Secretary of Defense be “appointed from civilian life,” but excludes from eligibility any person “within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.” See also 10 U.S.C.A. § 134(a) (West Supp. 2009) (limiting appointment eligibility for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy to persons “appointed from civilian life” who are “within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force”); 10 U.S.C. § 3013(a) (2006) (limiting appointment eligibility for Secretary of the Army to persons “appointed from civilian life” who are “within five years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force”); 10 U.S.C. § 5013(a) (2006) (same for Secretary of the Navy); 10 U.S.C. § 8013(a) (2006) (same for Secretary of the Air Force); 42 U.S.C. § 5812(a) (2006) (limiting appointment eligibility for Administrator of Energy Research and Development to persons “appointed from civilian life” who are “within two years after release from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force”). The statutory exclusion of retired military officers from appointment to certain offices for a specified time period necessarily implies that such persons are eligible for appointment to those same offices once the cooling-off period has ended. Because persons appointed to those offices must be “from civilian life,” it follows that retired military persons are considered to be “from civilian life.” When Congress intends to make some retired military officers ineligible for appointment, it has done so expressly.

2 Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of NASA

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Tyler
105 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 1882)
United States v. Fausto
484 U.S. 439 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. LTV Corp.
496 U.S. 633 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Guilmette v. United States
49 Ct. Cl. 188 (Court of Claims, 1914)
Barber v. United States
50 Ct. Cl. 250 (Court of Claims, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Eligibility of a Retired Military Officer for Appointment as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eligibility-of-a-retired-military-officer-for-appointment-as-administrator-olc-2009.