disbursing
authorities will be bound. Since Congress has the conceded power to lay
down the qualifications of officers and employees of the United States;
and since few people would contend that officers or employees of the
National Government have a constitutional right to advocate its
overthrow or to strike against it, the above proviso would seem to be
entirely constitutional. President Truman's "Loyalty Order"--Executive
Order 9835--of March 21, 1947[292] is an outgrowth in part of this
legislation.

LEGISLATION INCREASING DUTIES OF AN OFFICER

Finally, Congress may devolve upon one already in office additional
duties which are germane to his office without thereby "rendering it
necessary that the incumbent should be again nominated and appointed."
Such legislation does not constitute an attempt by Congress to seize the
appointing power.[293]

"INFERIOR OFFICERS"; "EMPLOYEES"

Except the President and the Vice President all persons in the civil
service of the National Government are appointive, and fall into one of
three categories, those who are appointed by the President, "by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate"; inferior officers, whose
appointment Congress has vested by law "in the President alone, in the
courts of law, or in the heads of departments"; and employees, a term
which is here used in a peculiar sense. Ordinarily it denotes one who
stands in a contractual relationship to his employer, but here it
signifies all subordinate officials of the National Government receiving
their appointments at the hands of officials who are not specifically
recognized by the Constitution as capable of being vested by Congress
with the appointing power.[294] Inferior officers are usually officers
intended to be subordinate to those in whom their appointment is
vested;[295] but the requirement is by no means absolute.[296]

STAGES OF APPOINTMENT PROCESS

Nomination

The Constitution appears to distinguish three stages in appointments by
the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The first is
the "nomination" of the candidate by the President alone; the second is
the assent of the Senate to the candidate's "appointment"; and the third
is the final appointment and commissioning of the appointee, by the
President.[297]

Senate Approval

The fact that the power of nomination belongs to the President alone
prevents the Senate from attaching conditions to its approval of an
appointme