Department of Energy · 10 CFR Part 710
Department of Energy security clearance hearings
Two things to keep in mind about these numbers
These are hearing decisions only. The Energy Department resolves many cases without a hearing. What is here is the set that reached a hearing and produced a published decision, so it does not describe how the Energy Department decides cases overall.
A favorable decision is not the final word. In the Energy Department process a decision in the individual's favor can still be appealed by the agency, so a favorable result here is what the judge decided, not necessarily the settled outcome.
Published hearing decisions
1,473
2011 to 2026
Favorable to the individual
33.5%
477 favorable · 947 not favorable
Had a lawyer or representative
456
of 1,473 published decisions
Represented themselves
183
of 1,473 published decisions
The favorable share is counted only among decisions with a clear favorable or unfavorable result. Where the decision was mixed, or its result could not be read cleanly, it is left out of that rate rather than guessed at.
What the hearings are most often about
- Alcohol consumption (Guideline G)649 decisions
- Personal conduct (Guideline E)424 decisions
- Financial considerations (Guideline F)316 decisions
- Criminal conduct (Guideline J)315 decisions
- Psychological conditions (Guideline I)279 decisions
- Drug involvement (Guideline H)155 decisions
A single decision can raise more than one concern, so these counts add to more than the number of decisions.
The words are different from the Defense process
- The notice of concerns
- A Notification Letter, with a Summary of Security Concerns attached (not a Statement of Reasons)
- Who decides
- An Administrative Judge in the Office of Hearings and Appeals (older decisions say Hearing Officer)
- The government's lawyer
- DOE Counsel (not Department Counsel)
- The appeal body
- The DOE Headquarters Appeal Panel
- The rulebook
- 10 CFR Part 710
- The result
- Favorable or not favorable to the individual (not granted or denied)
Reading these figures
- Favorable = the judge decided in the individual's favor; Not favorable = the judge decided against.
- Favorable share = favorable ÷ (favorable + not favorable). Decisions that were mixed, or whose result could not be read cleanly, are left out of the rate rather than guessed at.
- † marks figures based on fewer than 20 decisions with a clear result. Below that, the counts are printed instead of a percentage.
- Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
- Every figure here counts published Department of Energy hearing decisions alone. No figure on this site combines them with the DOHA record.
Where this comes from
Decisions are the Department of Energy's own published records from the Office of Hearings and Appeals, under 10 CFR Part 710. They are kept entirely separate from the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals record used elsewhere on this site, and no figure on the site ever combines the two. This is general information drawn from public decisions, not legal advice about any particular case.
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For attorneys and firms →Descriptive counts over published Department of Energy hearing decisions. Not legal advice or a prediction. † marks samples under 20 decisions.