As Trump appointees flout the Hatch Act, civil servants who get caught get punished

[Zorro]

A Defense Logistics Agency employee was suspended for 30 days without pay last fall after giving his office colleagues a PowerPoint presentation that displayed the words, “Vote Republican.”

An Energy Department worker was forced to resign in January after admitting she gave a woman running for Congress a tour of a federal waste treatment plant so the candidate could show her expertise to potential voters.

Another civil servant began a 120-day suspension without pay from the Food and Drug Administration in July after creating a Facebook page with his name and photograph to solicit political donations and then co-hosting a fundraiser.

These were some of the recent consequences for federal workers who illegally mixed government employment with partisan politics in violation of the Hatch Act, the anti-corruption law Congress passed in 1939.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hatch-act-trump-convention/2020/08/28/dce68a7e-e877-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. I would think a massive class action could take place

relating to selective enforcement of the Hatch Act. You could probably round up plenty of former federal employees and present employees who either have disciplinary findings in their file or lost jobs or had no references because of violations.

[Laelth]

3. All laws are selectively enforced (as far as I know).

I am not sure a class action lawsuit could succeed on that basis. I would be happy to be shown otherwise.



-Laelth

[paleotn]

2. Unfair, granted, but....

but that still doesn't mean those listed didn't violate the law and should be punished accordingly. We'll get to Pompeo and others later. Hatch Act violations will be the least of their troubles.

I'll say it once more...This time around, "for the good of the country" means they all get burned down. All of them.

[OnDoutside]

4. I would like to see one of the top Democrats come out and warn

Trump appointees that Hatch Act transgressors will be pursued in January, aggressively.