Federal employees can hold elected partisan office while also working at their agencies, a key panel found in a ruling setting a new precedent for civil servants.
Rodney Cowan did not have to give up his role as a county commissioner in Tennessee or be removed from his job with the U.S. Postal Service, the recently reconstituted central body of the Merit Systems Protection Board said in a decision last week. It was one of the first decisions of MSPB’s central board as it addresses its backlog of more than 3,500 cases that have piled up during its five years without a quorum.
The board overturned a ruling from one of MSPB’s administrative law judges, who said a settlement agreement that allowed Cowan to keep both positions violated the Hatch Act. The law, which dates back to 1939, restricts the political activities in which federal employees can engage. The board has historically interpreted it to block civil servants from concurrently holding political office, leading the judge to find Cowan’s agreement with the Office of Special Counsel—the independent federal agency that enforces the Hatch Act—invalid.
OSC appealed to the central board, however, arguing a 2012 update to the law did not actually ban the holding of partisan office and instead prohibited only the running for such a seat. Cowan conceded he violated that provision when he sought the county commissioner seat, and therefore agreed in his settlement to take a six-month unpaid suspension from USPS. Under the...
News movies korean Earlier this year, Kim Soo-Hyun was cleared of all allegations and YouTuber Kim Se-Ui was accused of spreading false claims against the actor through YouTube broadcasts. South Ko...