Challenging Unlawful Political Loyalty Test For Civil Service Jobs

This case challenges the Trump-Vance administration’s attempt to inject political loyalty into the federal nonpartisan civil service hiring process.

The plaintiffs are three unions representing hundreds of thousands of current and prospective federal workers: the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees. They sued the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and federal officials after the Trump-Vance administration required most federal civil service job applicants to answer an essay question asking how they would help advance President Trump’s executive orders and policy priorities.

For more than a century, the federal civil service has been based on merit, not political alliance. Congress created and strengthened that system to prevent exactly this kind of patronage and political screening. The complaint explains that the administration’s so-called “Merit Hiring Plan” undermines that longstanding framework by requiring open-ended essay questions for many federal jobs, including one “loyalty question” that asks applicants to identify the Trump-Vance administration’s executive orders or policy initiatives that are personally significant to them and explain how they would help implement them if hired.

The lawsuit argues that this question has nothing to do with whether someone can do the job. Instead, it seeks information about applicants’ political beliefs and encourages agencies to favor candidates who express support for the president’s agenda. 

The unions also allege that the policy is part of a broader effort to replace nonpartisan civil servants with political loyalists. According to the complaint, OPM directed agencies to include the essay questions on thousands of federal job postings, while political appointees and agency leadership were instructed to review applicant responses during hiring. The question has appeared on job postings for positions ranging from nurses and air traffic controllers to scientists, mechanics, and wildland firefighters.

The complaint argues that the loyalty question violates the First Amendment by imposing an unconstitutional condition on federal employment, compelling political speech, chilling applicants who do not want to express support for the administration, and enabling viewpoint discrimination. It also alleges that the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is arbitrary and capricious and conflicts with the merit-based civil service system Congress established. In addition, the lawsuit alleges that the collection and maintenance of applicants’ political views violates the Privacy Act because that information is irrelevant and intrudes on protected First Amendment activity.

The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the loyalty question unlawful and unconstitutional and to bar OPM from enforcing or implementing it. Democracy Forward represents the unions, alongside co-counsel, to defend the nonpartisan civil service and ensure that federal jobs are filled based on merit and service to the Constitution–not loyalty to a president or political agenda.