Federal workers are pushing back — hard — against a Trump administration hiring plan that demands applicants declare loyalty to the president’s political agenda. On Wednesday, a coalition of government employees asked a federal judge to put an immediate stop to it, calling the practice unconstitutional and fundamentally un-American.
At the center of the fight is the administration’s so-called “merit hiring plan,” which includes a short-essay prompt that reads:
“How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
The question first appeared in May and quickly sparked outrage. The White House later insisted the prompt was optional and wouldn’t hurt an applicant’s chances if left blank — but unions and legal experts say that’s impossible to believe. According to Democracy Forward, which is helping represent the unions in the lawsuit, the “loyalty question” now appears in more than 6,000 federal job postings.
The unions argue the plan is a blatant attempt to politicize the civil service, rewarding or punishing applicants based on their political beliefs — exactly the kind of spoils-system behavior the modern federal workforce was designed to prevent. Their lawsuit says the question violates the First Amendment and is part of a broader push by Trump to turn nonpartisan government jobs into political appointments.
On Wednesday, they asked a judge for a preliminary injunction to halt the practice while the case unfolds.
Several federal workers filed anonymous declarations describing how the question has already chilled their ability — and desire — to apply for positions. They requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from their agencies.
One Department of Education employee in Colorado said they’ve been blocked from seeking a new job even as they watch the administration dismantle their agency piece by piece.
“Honesty is important to me, and I cannot in good conscience pretend to agree with President Trump’s policies,” the worker wrote. “Even if the question is supposed to be optional, I believe it would be used against me if I don’t answer. After all, the question is there for a reason.”
Another employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs, working in IT, said they’ve been applying elsewhere in hopes of avoiding layoffs — until they ran into the loyalty question.
“This question is a clear violation of my free speech rights and it goes against everything that the United States stands for,” the worker said. “As a civil servant, I do not have to profess loyalty to a particular President. I instead profess loyalty to the Constitution.”
A separate VA worker said they answered the question only reluctantly, worried their application would be tossed if they didn’t. That meant digging through Trump’s executive orders to hunt for anything they could describe even semi-positively.
“To answer, I had to look through President Trump’s executive orders, the vast majority of which I disagreed with, to find one that I could discuss at least somewhat positively,” they said. “I would not have done so if not for the question on job applications.”
The administration continues to defend the plan. But federal workers are making one thing clear: they’re not willing to trade their constitutional rights for a job — and they’re not willing to pledge political loyalty to any president, Trump included.
