Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Sep 12: A federal judge has blocked US President Donald Trump's administration from continuing to ask applicants for federal civil service jobs to explain how they would advance the President's policies and executive orders.
US District Judge George O'Toole in Boston ruled in favour of three unions representing government workers that had challenged the question, which they described as a politically motivated “loyalty question”.
The unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), had sued after the administration began asking applicants for nonpartisan federal positions to submit essays explaining how they would support Trump's policies and executive orders.
The unions argued that the requirement, introduced by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), unlawfully politicised the hiring process for career civil servants by seeking to assess applicants' political views.
O'Toole said the question had been asked of applicants for a wide range of federal positions, including air traffic control specialists, crane operators and nuclear materials couriers.
The judge said applicants could reasonably interpret the question as an attempt to determine their political beliefs, despite federal law prohibiting employment decisions for such positions on the basis of political affiliation.
“The plaintiffs are thus likely to succeed in showing that there is no legitimate governmental interest in inquiring into the political beliefs of applicants to federal civil service vacancies,” O'Toole wrote in his ruling.
The judge halted use of the question, finding that it likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act by infringing on applicants' First Amendment rights.
Lawyers representing the unions, with support from liberal legal organisation Democracy Forward, welcomed the decision. They said more than 70,000 federal job postings had included the question, arguing that it undermined the merit-based nature of the federal civil service.
“Requiring federal job applicants to answer politically motivated questions goes against the very nature of the nonpartisan civil service,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
The other unions involved in the case are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the National Association of Government Employees.
The Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency had previously defended the question as optional and maintained that applicants had been clearly informed that hiring decisions could not be based on their political beliefs.
The question was introduced following an executive order signed by Trump in January 2025. The order directed the administration to develop a federal hiring plan aimed at bringing into government service “only highly skilled Americans dedicated to the furtherance of American ideals, values, and interests”.
In a May 2025 memorandum to the heads of executive agencies, OPM outlined steps to implement the order, including requiring applicants for federal jobs to respond to the essay question.
The ruling represents a setback for the administration's efforts to reshape federal hiring practices and comes amid continuing legal challenges over changes to the federal workforce and civil service system.