[terminalshort]

So the judge's quote from the article is "and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration's partisan views."

I thought that's exactly what you signed up for when you become a government employee.

[carefulfungi]

"... to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

I missed the part where government service wasn't about upholding and implementing the law but was instead about support for a particular party.

[jalapenos]

It was probably in the penumbras

[raddan]

There’s a difference between being required to perform the normal functions of the government and being required to espouse a political philosophy. The Hatch Act makes it clear that you can have a political opinion, but that it occurs on your own time. So the rationale of the court is “nobody is allowed to use their office for politics” and “by putting words in government employee mouths, their right to free speech is being abridged.”

5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1): “An employee may take an active part in political management or in political campaigns, except an employee may not — (1) use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”

There’s a lot more after that.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/7323

[singpolyma3]

It's actually mostly forbidden if you're a government employee. You serve the people not the politics