Trump FURIOUS as Judge RIPS AWAY Loyalty TEST!!!

Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian break down a federal court ruling blocking a Trump administration hiring rule that required job applicants — for positions as varied as air traffic controller, crane operator, and nuclear materials courier — to write an essay explaining how they'd help advance the president's executive orders and name one or two they personally support. U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. in Massachusetts, a Clinton appointee, granted a stay barring federal agencies from using the question while a lawsuit by three federal employee unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, proceeds, finding it likely violates both the Civil Service Reform Act and the First Amendment. Brian and Shant note the scale: by September 2026, the essay question had appeared on more than 70,000 federal job listings on USAJobs, including nearly all Department of Labor postings and roughly three-quarters of Justice and Energy Department listings — for jobs with zero policymaking authority. Brian walks through the Supreme Court precedents that control here: Elrod v. Burns and Branti v. Finkel, which allow political loyalty tests only for high-level policymaking positions, and Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, which extended that same protection to job applicants, not just current employees — settled law for 36 years that Brian and Shant say the administration violated anyway. Brian and Shant also flag the company this puts Trump in: loyalty oaths have historically been a hallmark of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, fascist Italy, apartheid South Africa, and America's own McCarthy-era Red Scare. Brian's bottom line: this is a preliminary stay, not a final ruling, and the administration will likely try to redraft the question — but for now, a federal judge has confirmed that asking a crane operator to prove their loyalty to Donald Trump is illegal.

Kabateck LLP: Call 1-844-74-CIVIL for a free case evaluation or visit us at https://www.kbklawyers.com/

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