BOSTON —Remember the so-called “loyalty oaths’’ federal workers had to take after World War II and during the McCarthy era? Well, the dictatorial Republican Donald Trump regime wants federal job applicants to do something similar—tell which Trump dictates they support and why.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston gave a qualified “no” to that scheme on September 11, adding the demand is likely unconstitutional.
In a win for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFSCME, the unaffiliated National Association of Government Employees and Democracy Forward, Judge O’Toole said the demand violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. “This case is about speech, not about employment actions,” Judge O’Toole wrote.
Trump’s requirement not only violates the workers’ constitutional rights, but is yet another way he’s stuffing the non-partisan civil service with pro-Trump operatives, the unions said.
The “requirement that ‘agency leadership, or their designees…be involved throughout the full hiring process,’ means ‘political appointees’ will review responses to question three”—the essay about supporting Trump policies—on the federal job application before a final hiring decision is made.
“Question three and the related guidance ‘unconstitutionally politicizes the career employee hiring process,’ violating the APA (Administrative Procedure Act) and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judge wrote.
Judge O’Toole issued a temporary stay banning the scheme’s further implementation, adding the unions would likely win the case on its merits. But the judge didn’t issue an injunction, which is stronger and more comprehensive.
Trump is trying to force applicants for federal jobs to write extensively on their job applications about what Trump policies they endorse, and why. It’s one of four essay questions Trump has dumped onto the civil service hiring application.
It’s also part of his years-long campaign to denigrate and trash the career civil service. Its two million workers, like Trump, take an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and—for the workers—to faithfully enforce the laws. But Trump calls the civil service “the deep state,” and denounces AFGE in particular as “traitors” and “enemies.”
He also had trillionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency take a chainsaw to 300,000 workers’ jobs. A disproportionate number of those axed were women, workers of color, or both. In another move to disembowel the civil service, Trump’s transferred agency headquarters out of the D.C. area on short notice, giving workers—again disproportionately workers of color—the choice to move or quit.
Some 70,000 potential job applicants have already faced answering the question. Trump’s Office of
Personnel Management says doing so is optional and will not affect hiring decisions. The judge’s ruling makes clear he doesn’t believe that. He also says keeping the Trump loyalty question will chill others from seeking federal jobs.
“Requiring federal job applicants to answer politically motivated questions goes against the very nature of the nonpartisan civil service, and we are pleased the judge has put an immediate stop to the administration’s loyalty questions. Federal employees should be hired based solely on their ability to perform the job–not their allegiance to any particular administration,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said.
“Loyalty questions are a blatantly illegal attempt to hire partisan cronies who would endanger our communities by putting politics before people, rather than dedicated, qualified public service workers,” said new AFSCME President Patrick Moran. “Protecting the integrity of a nonpartisan, professional civil service is essential to the health and safety of our communities. AFSCME members will continue to fight the administration’s attacks on the public services we all depend on to thrive.”
Judge O’Toole’s decision “Today makes clear that hiring in the federal workforce cannot be turned into a political loyalty question,” said NAGE President David Holway. “Federal jobs are not political rewards, and public service is not conditioned on allegiance to a president. When political loyalty becomes a prerequisite for public service, it erodes public trust and weakens democracy itself.
“Unions are a critical line of defense in protecting a professional, nonpartisan public workforce grounded in fairness, neutrality, and the rule of law.”
“For more than a century, civil servants have been hired based on their merits, not based on allegiance to a partisan political agenda,” said Skye Perryman, President of Democracy Forward, the lawyers’ organization which aids foes of Trump’s dictatorial moves. “Stopping the Trump-Vance administration’s required loyalty question for public servants reaffirms the importance of a nonpartisan civilian workforce that serves the people. This ruling protects the Constitution, the civil service, and the people who depend on a professional, nonpartisan federal workforce.”
Loyalty oaths, which are even tougher, have a long history in the U.S., stretching back to the Civil War. Then the Lincoln administration required captured Confederates to swear an oath not to take up arms against the U.S. again as a condition for being freed.
Confederate leaders, such as President Jefferson Davis and various generals, could also take the oath, but were barred from holding public office, unlike rank-and-file soldiers. But the most notorious recent use of loyalty oaths came during the anti-Communist hysteria which swept the federal government and the country after World War II and into the (Joe) McCarthy era of the 1950s.
Right-wing Republicans and white nationalists pushed that cause, led by Sen. “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy, R-Wis., the John Birch Society, and other so-called “anti-Communist” organizations. Left-leaning unions were among their top targets.
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