• HIRING
• CIVIL SERVICE

• ERICH WAGNER

A trio of federal employee unions on Thursday sued the Office of Personnel Management seeking to excise essay questions recently added to most federal job applications that institute a “thinly veiled” political loyalty test and effectively upend the nonpartisan civil service.

Last May, OPM published a new “merit hiring plan,” which, among other things, mandated the inclusion of four open-ended essay questions for every job announcement at GS-5 level or above. One of those questions quizzes the applicant on their favorite Trump administration policy and how they would support its implementation.

“How would you help advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities in this role?” the question states. “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.”

While initially deemed mandatory, OPM appeared to backtrack after pushback from employee groups, making responses voluntary and stating that answers would not be “scored or rated.” But the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the National Association of Government Employees argued in their complaint that subsequent training and memos make clear that the essay responses will still be used to make hiring decisions. The unions allege that the essay question violates the First Amendment, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act in a litany of different ways.

“The [Merit Hiring Plan], including the MHP guidance interpreting it, violates the First Amendment in several ways,” the unions wrote. “First, it imposes an unconstitutional condition on employment, creating a hiring system where applicants are identifiable by and selected on the basis of professed political beliefs and loyalties. In so doing, the MHP essentially establishes a system of unconstitutional political patronage.”

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