Legal Action

Plaintiffs, a coalition of federal employee unions representing millions of workers, are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s new “Merit Hiring Plan” (MHP). The MHP requires federal job applicants to answer four essay questions, including a “Loyalty Question” asking applicants to identify Executive Orders they support and explain how applicants would help advance the policies contained in the EOs if hired. Plaintiffs argue this requirement undermines the nonpartisan, merit-based civil service by compelling political speech, chilling applicants from expressing their true views, and enabling viewpoint discrimination based on allegiance to the President. Plaintiffs seek to invalidate the Loyalty Question as unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, and inconsistent with the Privacy Act’s limits on collecting personal political information.