2026-09-12T00:08:30.993Z / 路透社
2020年8月30日，美国华盛顿，美国联邦政府雇员联合会（AFGE）总部外可见该组织标识。REUTERS/Andrew Kelly 购买授权许可
波士顿9月11日路透电——一名联邦法官于周五叫停特朗普政府继续在全政府范围内的文职岗位招聘中，要求求职者回答一道被工会斥为党派性“忠诚度问题”的考题。
美国波士顿地区法官乔治·奥图尔
支持了代表政府雇员的三个工会的诉求。这些工会去年提起诉讼，此前特朗普政府开始要求无党派联邦职位的求职者撰写短文，阐述自己将如何助力推进特朗普的政策与行政命令。
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包括美国联邦政府雇员联合会在内的这些工会辩称，美国人事管理办公室（OPM）出台的这道考题试图评估求职者对这位共和党总统的支持度，非法将职业政府雇员的招聘流程政治化。
奥图尔是民主党总统比尔·克林顿任命的法官，他表示这道考题已被用于从空中交通管制专员、起重机操作员到核材料押运员等各类职位的求职者。
他指出，工会成员合理地将该问题解读为试图探查求职者的政治观点，尽管《公务员制度改革法案》禁止基于政治派别做出此类职位的雇佣决策。
“因此原告很有可能证明，调查联邦文职职位求职者的政治信仰不存在任何合法的政府利益，”奥图尔写道。
这位法官以该考题可能违反《行政程序法》、侵犯美国宪法第一修正案规定的言论权为由，叫停了该考题的使用。
自由派组织“民主向前”的工会律师对这一裁决表示欢迎，称已有超过7万个联邦职位招聘公告包含该考题，破坏了本应基于优绩原则的招聘体系。
“要求联邦求职者回答带有政治动机的问题，违背了无党派公务员制度的本质，”美国联邦政府雇员联合会全国主席埃弗雷特·凯利在一份声明中说道。
另外两个工会分别是美国州、县和市政雇员联合会以及全国政府雇员协会。
美国人事管理办公室未立即回应置评请求。该机构此前为该考题辩护称其为可选题目，并表示招聘决策不能基于政治信仰这一点已明确。
该机构是为响应特朗普2025年1月签署的一项行政命令而推出该考题的，这项行政命令要求其制定一份招聘计划，仅吸纳“致力于推进美国理想、价值观和利益的高技能美国人”进入联邦 workforce。
美国人事管理办公室在2025年5月发给所有执行机构负责人的备忘录中，列出了落实特朗普行政命令的各项措施，其中包括要求求职者回答这篇短文考题。
内特·雷蒙德 波士顿报道；汤姆·霍格 编辑
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US judge blocks Trump administration’s ‘loyalty’ question for job applicants
2026-09-12T00:08:30.993Z / Reuters
The logo of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is seen on the outside of their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Purchase Licensing Rights
BOSTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from continuing to ask applicants for civil service jobs throughout the government to respond to what unions described as a partisan “loyalty question.”
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston
sided with
three unions representing government workers who sued last year after the administration began asking applicants for nonpartisan federal jobs to write essays explaining how they would help advance Trump’s policies and executive orders.
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The unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, argued the question mandated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) unlawfully politicized the hiring process for career government workers by attempting to assess their support for the Republican president.
O’Toole, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the question had been asked of applicants to positions ranging from an air traffic control specialist to a crane operator to a nuclear materials courier.
He said the unions’ members reasonably interpreted it as an attempt to determine the applicants’ political views, even though the Civil Service Reform Act bars making employment decisions for such jobs on the basis of political affiliation.
“The plaintiffs are thus likely to succeed in showing that there is no legitimate governmental interest in inquiring into the political beliefs of applicants to federal civil service vacancies,” O’Toole wrote.
The judge halted the use of the question on grounds that it likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act by infringing on speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Lawyers for the unions at the liberal group Democracy Forward welcomed the ruling, saying that over 70,000 federal job postings had included the question, undermining what is supposed to be a merit-based hiring system.
“Requiring federal job applicants to answer politically motivated questions goes against the very nature of the nonpartisan civil service,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
The other two unions are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the National Association of Government Employees.
OPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously defended the question as optional and said that it had been clear that hiring decisions could not be based on political beliefs.
It had adopted the question in response to an executive order Trump signed in January 2025 that required it to develop a hiring plan that brought into the federal workforce “only highly skilled Americans dedicated to the furtherance of American ideals, values, and interests.”
OPM in a May 2025 memo to the heads of all executive agencies set forth various actions to implement Trump’s order, including by requiring that job applicants be asked to respond to the essay question.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Hogue
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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