By Kathy Gill

Updated on September 23, 2021

The Hatch Act is a federal law that restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government, and some state and local employees whose salaries are paid for partially or entirely with federal money.

The Hatch Act was passed in 1939 to ensure that federal programs “are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Examples of Violations

In passing the Hatch Act, Congress affirmed that partisan activity government employees must be limited for public institutions to function fairly and effectively.

The courts have held that the Hatch Act is not an unconstitutional infringement on employees’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech because it specifically provides that employees retain the right to speak out on political subjects and candidates.

All civilian employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and the vice president, are covered by the provisions of the Hatch Act.

These employees may not:

• use official authority or influence to interfere with an election
• solicit or discourage political activity of anyone with business before their agency
• solicit or receive political contributions (may be done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other employee organizations)
• be candidates for public office in partisan elections
• engage in political activity while: on duty
• in a government office
• wearing an official uniform
• using a government vehicle
• wear partisan political buttons on duty

While the Hatch Act has been described as an “obscure” law, it is taken seriously and enforced.

Gill, Kathy. “Hatch Act: Definition and Examples of Violations.” ThoughtCo, Sep. 23, 2021, thoughtco.com/the-hatch-act-3368321.

July 4, 2018, comes to mind …

The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775; and on August 19, 1775, George III proclaimed that the colonies were in “open and avowed rebellion”. After losing Boston, the British did well in the war to capture New York; and then the American capital Philadelphia. However, the defeat at Saratoga was a major blow to the British cause.

 

 

resource: BusinessInsider.com

By Fiza Pirani, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

afc.org

1. Not all women could actually vote after the 19th amendment was ratified.
The struggle for women’s suffrage did not end with the 19th Amendment’s ratification, especially for black women, who still faced barriers in some Southern states.

2. The 19th Amendment was drafted in 1878 by suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
It was introduced to Congress that same year by California Sen. Aaron A. Sargent.

3. The proposal sat in committee for nearly a decade only to be rejected in 1887 with a 16-to-34 vote.
After three more decades of no progress, another proposal was brought to the House in 1918. It finally passed the House on May 21, 1919 and the Senate on June 4, 1919.

4. The vote came down to a tiebreaker.
Two-thirds of House and Senate members were required to vote “yes” for its ratification. On Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee became the tie-breaker state in a 48-48 tie.

According to History.com, the decision fell to 23-year-old Republican Rep. Harry T. Burn, who opposed the amendment himself, but was convinced by his mother to approve it.

His mother reportedly wrote to her son: “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.”
5. More than 8 million American women voted for the first time in the November 1920 elections.

6. In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, and the movement gained national spotlight.

The convention is widely regarded as the start of the women’s rights movement in America.

7. Stanton and Mott, along with a group of delegates, produced a “Declaration of Sentiments” document at the convention, modeled after the Declaration of Independence.
From the “Declaration of Sentiments:”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
8. Stanton and Anthony led several unsuccessful court challenges in the mid-1870s.

The women argued that the 14th Amendment, which granted universal citizenship, and the 15th Amendment together, which granted voting rights irrespective of race, guaranteed women’s voting rights.

But because Supreme Court decisions rejected their argument, suffrage leaders combined efforts to advocate for a new consititutional amendment.

9. It wasn’t until 1869, when the Wyoming Territory gave women ages 21 and up the same voting rights as men, including state voting rights, that there was a major victory for women’s voting rights.

10. Wyoming was also the first state to elect a female governor and its state nickname is “the Equality State.”
According to History.com, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor in 1924.

11. A woman named Carrie Chapman Catt was instrumental in the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Catt, who in 1900 succeeded Anthony as the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), made the controversial decision to support the war effort in World War I, something her colleagues and supporters weren’t thrilled about.

Eventually, women’s help during the war gave them a more nationalistic reputation and in his 1918 State of the Union address, President Woodrow Wilson spoke in favor of women’s right to vote.
12. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi all rejected the amendment before finally ratifying it after Aug. 18, 1920.

13. It took more than 60 years for the other 12 states to ratify the 19th Amendment.

14. Georgia ratified the amendment on Feb. 20, 1970, after rejecting it on July 24, 1919.

15. The last state to ratify the 19th amendment was Mississippi, which did so on March 22, 1984.

16. The amendment overruled the 1875 Minor vs. Happersett case, granting women the right to vote.
In the case, a Missouri state court refused to register a woman as a lawful voter because state laws said only men were allowed to vote.

17. Residents of U.S. colonies (such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands) still cannot vote in presidential elections and don’t have Congressional representatives.

18. The 19th Amendment was formally adopted on Aug. 26, 1920.

This day is now nationally recognized as Women’s Equality Day.
19. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, in every presidential election since 1980, the proportion of eligible women voters has exceeded the proportion of eligible males who voted.

Read the full text of the 19th Amendment.