The "meritocracy" exposed: Internal emails reveal how the Trump administration hires legal interns
“You MUST be aligned politically with President Trump… GPA is not a strong factor.”
On Friday afternoon, Liberty University Law School emailed its first and second-year students about an “exciting opportunity to intern with the Department of Labor in DC.” The available positions covered the full breadth of the DOL’s activities — “litigation, appeals, regulations, policy, etc.” The email, sent by Derek Green, an associate director at the law school, stressed that those accepted into the program “will make incredible connections that will payoff [sic] later.” For second-year students, the internship “could lead to a full-time job offer for after your 2027 graduation.”
One important caveat: only passionate devotees of President Trump would be considered. Students who “aligned politically with President Trump” and were “willing to work hard” were strongly encouraged to apply, even if they had poor grades.
The email was provided by a source on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from the school. Contacted by phone, Green told Popular Information he could not speak without approval from Edie Swann, Liberty University Law School’s Director of Public Affairs. Swann did not respond to an email request for an interview.
Excerpts from Green’s email were reported earlier by the legal blog Above the Law.
Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell Sr., is a conservative Christian institution based in Lynchburg, Virginia. Falwell Jr., who took over the university after his father died in 2007, was an advisor to Trump. Falwell Jr. resigned after a sexual scandal in 2020, but Liberty University has maintained a key role in connecting the Trump administration to the evangelical community.
Green stressed that anyone interested in the DOL legal internship should “ABSOLUTELY apply” because “the person conducting the interviews is Vittoria D’Addesi, a 2025 graduate of Liberty Law, along with a representative of the White House Liaison Office.”
According to Green, D’Addesi will ask applicants a variety of political questions, including “[D]id you vote for President Trump?” and “Do you disagree with the President on anything?”
Green concluded that his goal was “to get double digit Liberty Law students in this program this summer.”
Appended to the Green email was a more staid message from D’Addesi. In her description, D’Addesi writes that “[o]nly students who are interested in advancing the President’s initiatives and delivering wins for the American Worker should apply.”
D’Addesi did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The legality of a political litmus test for government jobs
In most cases, it is illegal to condition federal employment on a candidate’s political views.
In her email, D’Addesi describes the internship as “a political position in which interns will serve the Trump Administration for the duration of their internships.” This suggests the DOL is treating these internships as “Schedule C“ positions, which are defined as “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating.” The Supreme Court, in Elrod v. Burns and subsequent decisions, ruled that only these policy positions can be conditioned on political beliefs.
But the DOL would have a difficult time arguing these low-level internships qualify for a “Schedule C” designation. A confidential position, by law, “is identified by its close working relationship with the President, head of an agency, or other key appointed officials who are responsible for furthering the goals and policies of the President and the Administration.” It seems highly doubtful that these summer interns will be working closely with agency heads or other top officials. Further, summer interns are not tasked with determining, making, or advocating for policies. Green’s description specifically notes that some of the DOL internships involve day-to-day litigation, appeals, and regulations.
Berkley Law Professor Catherine Fisk, an expert in employment law, told Popular Information that, regardless of the internship’s designation, the hiring process described in the Liberty Law School email was illegal. “Summer clerks, whether Schedule C or not, are not exempt from the requirements of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political tests for hiring,” Fisk said.
In the 2000s, a less brazen version of the DOL’s legal internship hiring process became a scandal.
An Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation found that in 2006, the Department of Justice improperly conditioned acceptance into the Summer Law Intern Program and related positions on political ideology. The OIG found that candidates were not asked directly about their political views, but reviewers sought to suss out their political leanings through the application process.
For example, some candidates were eliminated for submitting an essay with “leftist commentary and buzz words like ‘environmental justice’ and ‘social justice.’” Others were excluded for “membership in certain organizations like the American Constitution Society, having a clerkship with a judge who was perceived as a liberal, having worked for a liberal Member of Congress, or having worked for a liberal law school professor.”
As a result, the OIG determined that at least two members of the screening committee “took political or ideological affiliations into account in deselecting candidates in violation of Department policy and federal law.”
Compared with the selection criteria described in the Liberty email, their methods seem quaint.
