It’s called The Hatch Act. But when a Democratic senator from New Mexico first introduced it decades ago in the U.S. Senate, it was dubbed “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.”
The goals of its principal author, the late US Senator Carl Hatch, were to free federal workers from having to reach into their pockets and donate to political campaigns, and to remove partisan political activity from government offices, both state and federal, as reported. the Act of Congress and historians.
Signed into law in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the law has been tweaked by Congress in successive decades, but one principle has remained intact: Top presidential appointees cannot engage in partisan politics, two agencies said Tuesday federal charges than Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachel S. Rollins has since taking office 16 months ago.
According to the Office of Special Counsel, the main federal agency that investigates and then enforces the law, the Hatch Act applied to Rollins as an employee of the US Department of Justice, whose employment made her part of government law enforcement. Employees like Rollins must not participate in partisan elections or use their government position — and their access to records, for example — to promote a political candidate.
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“Ms. Rollins’ brazen willingness to use DOJ resources, information, and her official authority as US Attorney to further partisan political goals is directly contrary to both the letter and spirit of the Hatch Act “, according to the report of the Office of Special Counsel. . (CSO)
Also claiming that Rollins violated the Hatch Act was the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General, which concluded that Rollins actively assisted Boston City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo against Kevin R. Hayden when both they were seeking the Democratic nomination for Suffolk district attorney last year, a race. eventually Hayden won.
Both agencies found Rollins in violation of the Hatch Act when he sought to hold a 2022 Democratic Party fundraiser attended by first lady Jill Biden.
“One of the considerations of Congress in passing the Hatch Act was that ‘not only is it important that the government and its employees avoid, in fact, practicing political justice, but it is also essential that it appear to the public that they are avoiding it, if there is trust in the system of representative government it should not be eroded to a disastrous extent,” the OSC wrote in its Rollins report, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1973
The OSC conducted Hatch Act investigations during the Trump administration and found that Trump’s top White House adviser, Kellyanne Conway, repeatedly crossed the line when she disparaged Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in his official capacity.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.
