Federal Court Halts “Loyalty Question” in Civil Service Applications

A U.S. District Court in Boston issued a stay that bars the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from requiring the “loyalty question” on federal civil-service job applications. The injunction, entered on a Friday, stops agencies from including an essay prompt that asks applicants how they would advance the President’s executive orders while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.

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The loyalty question stemmed from an OPM “Merit Hiring Plan” released in May 2025 after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025. The plan instructed agencies to add an essay field to more than 70,000 job postings, asking candidates to describe how they would help advance the administration’s orders. Labor unions representing federal workers—AFGE, AFSCME, and NAGE—filed suit, arguing that the requirement compels political speech and enables viewpoint discrimination.

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• >70,000 federal job postings included the loyalty question, according to the unions.

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• The lawsuit, *American Federation of Government Employees et al. v. Office of Personnel Management et al.*, was filed in November 2025.

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Union leaders called the injunction a protection of the merit-based civil service. The OPM spokesperson declined to comment. Protect Democracy’s Special Counsel Ori Lev noted that hiring should be based on merit, not political loyalty. The court’s order says the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on First Amendment, Administrative Procedure Act, and Privacy Act claims, and the stay will remain in effect until further order.

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• “For more than a century, civil servants have been hired based on their merits, not based on allegiance to a partisan political agenda,” — Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward

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• “Today’s ruling makes clear that hiring in the federal workforce cannot be turned into a political loyalty question,” — David J. Holway, National President of NAGE

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The injunction stops enforcement of the loyalty question, but the court has not yet issued a final ruling on whether the requirement violates the First Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act, or the Privacy Act. The litigation’s outcome on those substantive legal questions remains pending.

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The stay will stay in force until the court issues a further order. The unions will continue to pursue the case, seeking a definitive ruling that the loyalty question is unlawful. OPM must notify all agency heads of the stay within seven days, and agencies must remove the question from any pending job announcements while the lawsuit proceeds.

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