Hatch Act

The Hatch Act is a 1939 federal law that strictly limits the political activity of federal employees. It was designed to prevent the WPA from becoming a national political machine, and remains the law. The Pendleton Act (1883), supplemented by executive orders of Presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, limited the political activities of career civil servants (e.g., in the General Service (GS) series, or GG series in the United States intelligence community). The Hatch Act (1939) extended limitations to employees appointed by the current Administration (e.g., Schedule C) as well.

Gall (1995) chronicles the Hatch Act from its passing in 1939, through its amendment in 1940, and to its further amendment in 1993. New Mexico Senator Carl A. Hatch drafted "clean up government" legislation that included a provision prohibiting federal employees from taking an active part in partisan political activity. The United Federal Workers of America (UFWA), an affiliate of the CIO challenged the law's constitutionality, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in United Public Workers v. Mitchell (1947) that government's need for "orderly management of administration" was greater than the appellant's freedom of expression. Organized labor won the long struggle, when in 1993 Congress passed a new amendment removing the restrictions.