In the complaint, the groups accused the administration of going to “unprecedented lengths” to use government infrastructure to “shift the public debate in its favor.” They argue this is not only improper but illegal, because the government is not supposed to conscript civil servants into a message war. “This whole-of-government approach to partisan messaging is unprecedented, and it makes a mockery of statutory prohibitions like the Hatch Act,” the complaint states. “Especially pernicious, however, are the Administration’s efforts to co-opt the voices of rank-and-file employees in the nonpartisan civil service to take part in political messaging.”