On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:25:50 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

I think you're right... I remember reading some case law a long time ago
about a requirement to advertise publically even though there are internal
applicants, but the only details I can remember were regarding no obviously
"qualified" internal candidates. I just don't remember the details and can't
seem to find the citation.

A lot of organizations have a policy that all job requisitions be
internally posted before a final hiring decision. Managers quickly
learn that the secret to playing the game successfully is to write the
job requirements so narrowly that only one person is qualified, namely
the person you wanted to hire in the first place.