Oklahoma v. United States Civil Service Commission (330 U.S. 127)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 10, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 330 U.S. 127 · 67 S. Ct. 544
- Decided
- February 10, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 5–2
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. This proceeding brings to this Court another phase of the Hatch Act. The petitioner, the State of Oklahoma, objects to the enforcement by the United States Civil Service Commission of § 12 (a) of the Act. France Paris has been a member of the State Highway Commission of Oklahoma since January 14, 1943. He was elected chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee for Oklahoma for his third term in February 1942 and he occupied such position continuously until October 18, 1943, when he resigned. On October 12, 1943, the Civil Service Commission issued its letter of charges in the matter of France Paris and the State of Oklahoma, in which it notified Mr. Paris and Oklahoma that information which the Civil Service Commission had received warranted an investigation into an alleged improper political activity on the part of France Paris under the provisions of § 12 of the Hatch Act. The charge was that since January 14, 1943, Mr. Paris had been an officer of Oklahoma whose principal employment was and is in connection with an activity financed in whole or in part by loans and grants from a federal agency of the United States and that during such time Mr. Paris also held a political party office, to wit, the chairmanship of the State Central Committee above referred to. It later developed that no general election occurred in…
Excerpt of a 37,703-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.