Under Hatch Act of 1939, federal employees, employees of the District of Columbia (D.C.) government, and certain state and local government employees faced significant restrictions on their ability to participate in political activities and placing ceilings on campaign expenditures. The act is named for its author, Senator Carl Atwood Hatch (1889-1963) of New Mexico. (There was an earlier Hatch Act (1887), named for Representative William Henry Hatch (1833-96) of Missouri, concerned the study of scientific agriculture.) The Hatch Act of 1939 passed following several big corruption cases involving the burgeoning post-New Deal bureaucracy, and was aimed at the civil service. But by its terms, it applies to almost anyone on the U.S. government payroll. Only the president, vice president, and appointees requiring Senate confirmation (such as Cabinet secretaries) are exempt. The original Hatch Act forbade government employees to raise funds, give partisan public speeches, or volunteer for any candidate or party. Among its provisions, the Hatch Act prohibited such practices as threatening, intimidating, or coercing voters in national elections; made it illegal for administrators in U.S. civil service to interfere with the nomination and election of candidates to federal office; proscribed the practices of promising and withholding certain kinds of employment and unemployment relief as a reward or punishment for political activity; and prohibited the solicitation of political contributions from relief recipients. Enforcement of the Hatch Act was always erratic, and there was no serious attempt to apply its general ban on politicking to the White House. The Hatch Act was amended in 1940 to put a $5000 ceiling on annual individual contributions to campaigns for any one candidate for election to federal office and to limit the contributions received and expended by political committees to $3 million a year. The purchase of...
