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Show :r i rii ' 1 r i l'-.J'p- t , ! .. r ( 4 tty, WESTERN AMERICANA SALT VOLUME 17, NUMBER 151 SUPBEME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION et al. v. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, APPEAL FROM et al. AFL-CI- O, THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT FOR COURT THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA No. 72-6-34. Argued March 26, 1973 Decided June 25, 1973 Some individual federal employees, an employees union, and certain local Democratic and Republican political committees filed this action challenging as unconstitutional on its face the prohibition in 9 (a) of the Hatch Act, now 5 U. S. C. $ 7324 (a) (2), against federal employees taking an active part in political management or in political campaigns. The section defines the phrase as those acts of political management or political campaigning which were prohibited on the part of employees id the competitive service before July 19, 1940, by determinations of the Civil Service Commission under the rules prescribed by the President. The three-judg- e District Court recognised the governmental interest in restricting political activities by .federal employees, but held that the statutory definition of political activity, the constitutionality of which was left open in United well-establis- Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75, was vague and overbroad, and thus unconstitutional. Held: 1. The holding of Mitchell, supra, that federal employees can be prevented from holding a party office, working at the polls, and acting as party paymaster for other party workers is reaffirmed. Congress can also constitutionally forbid federal employees from engaging in plainly identifiable acts of political management and political wunpaignin guch as organising a political party or club; actively participating in activities for a partisan candidate or political party; becoming a partisan candidate for, or campaigning for, an elective public office; actively managing the campaign of a partisan candidate for public office; initiating or circulating a partisan nominating petition or soliciting votes for a partisan candidate for public office; or serving as a delegate, alternate, or proxy to a political party convention. Pp. 2. It Sv ilie Civil Service Commissions regulations regarding political activity, the legitimate descendants of Ihe 1940 restatement adopted by the Congress, and, in most resjH'cts the reflection of longstanding interpretations of the statute by the agency charged with its interpretation and enforcement, and the statute itself, that are the bases for rejecting the claim that the Act is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. Pp. 1. (a) The regulations specifying the various activities deemed prohibited by 7324 (a) (2) are set out in terms that the ordinary person Exercising ordinary common sense can sufficiently understand and observe, without sacrifice to the public interest, and are not impermissibly vague. Pp. 26-2- 9. (b) There is nothing fatally overbroad about the statute considered in connection with the Civil Service Commissions construction of its terms represented by the current regulations. The restrictions on endorsements in advertisements, broadcasts, and literature, and on speaking at political party meetings in support of partisan candidates for public or party office, the major areas of difficulty, are clearly stated, are normally performed only in the context of partisan campaigns by one taking an active role in them, and are sustainable just as the other acts of political campaigning are constitutionally prescribable. They do not, therefore, render the rest of the statute vulnerable for overbreadth. Pp. 29-3- 1. (c) Even if the provisions forbidding partisan campaign endorsements and specchmaking were to be . considered in some respects constitutionally overbroad, they would not invalidate the 2. entire statute. Pp. fund-raisi- ng 5-- 18. 18-3- 31-3- 346 F. Supp. 578, reversed. White, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Burger, C. J., and Stewart, Blacxmun, Powell, and Rehnquist, JJ., joined. Douglas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Brennan and Marshall, JJ., joined. UICI CITY, THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1973 UTAH Legitimacy Law Backed By Uniform Law Group Charlotte Moalloa HYANNIS, BIASS. (tJPI) Legal the from all states representatives has approved a uniform law on parent-chil- d relationships which secure the helps rights of children born out of wedlock. A committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NOCUSL) has been working on the draft for several years. Commissioners draw up legislation on problems common to all the states and have the duty of trying to get it adopted in their own capitols. The parent-chil- d relationship act deals primarily with methods for determining a childs paternity. Vtye thought there should be an efficient, easy, quick way to find out who a childs father is, said Prof. Harry D. Krause of the University of Illinois, who worked with the conference committee. The committee chairman is Lewis - By Children (AFDC) Dependent welfare program and provides for establishment of federal blood testing laboratories. The proposed NOCUSL act also provides that if a woman gives birth to a child by means of artificial insemination, under the supervision of a licensed doctor and with the consent of her husband, the husband is the natural father of the child. An acknowledgement of the procedure must be signed by all three. The physidan's certification of the date of insemination is kept in a sealed file in the State Department of Health, and no records about the circumstances of birth are available for inspection except upon court order. was told that state utter confusion, on the Ihe conference .law is in Isubjed of artificial insemination. Krause said only a few states notably California, Oklahoma and have any laws on the Georgia books. i The organization fleeted Harold E. Reed, Jr., a Hartford, Conn, lawyer as president for 1973-7succeeding Judge Eugene A. Burdick of Williston, N.D. All the commissioners serve without pay. 5, C. Green of St. Louis. The problem of determining each childs natural father has become more urgent following several Supreme Court decisions on the right of illegitimates. Further, a broadly based program dealing with their support was introduced June 27 in the U.S. Senate as an amendment to the Social Security Act. The federal bill requires a determination of paternity before federal funds can be paid to the state under the Aid to Families of Lon pehv(a "STREET" SCAPEGOAT FOR NIXON BLUNDERS Nixon Administration will not-re- peat NEW he not be remembered fa its humilities. Thats the word in stock brokerage offices. Reason: A couple of weeks ago Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the stock market appeared to be totally irrational and in a state of hydrophobia. Thus, to the bull and bear population of Wall Street, Mr. Stein added the canine species mad dogs suffering of the horrible disease rabies (hydrophobia). This remark, from one who 1ms issued four unworkable economic phases, has Wall Streeters and business leaders, frothing at the mouth. Stretters say that if Nixon and Stein came up with some workable economic programs, investors would have confidence in the Administration and scramble to buy corporate common shares. But they show nothing to whet investor appetite for stocks. Conversations in the financial community make it clear that old hound dogs of Wall Street arent likely to be stirred into all-othe bullish action, because of the confused councils of Washington. Mad and ill they may be, but not hospitalized. From another lunch table it was heard that annoyed chartists wonder how much it would be worth on the Dow Jones industrial share average to have Mr. Nixon and Mr. Stein go away. YORK-T- Court Orders Confiscation Of Airliner federal (UPI) be what was NEW YORK judge, in A believed to an unprecedented ruling, last week ordered the confiscation of a $9 million Braniff airliner that brought three admitted drug smugglers to New York from Colombia on April 2. You forfeit Cadillacs and little cars when they are used in drug trafficking . . . U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein said in ordering U.S. Attorney Robert A. Morse to initiate confiscation proceedings. I have no doubt that the airlines operating to these (South American) countries are profiting from the transportation of drug smugglers . . . I want to know in writing what the U.S. Attorney is going to do with respect to this (Braniff) flight 906. Morse Said he will ask the department of justice for guidance in the case. Braniff in New York said company attorneys were studying the case. A spokesman said the plane was worth $9 million. Weinsteins order was issued in connection with the sentencing of two Colombians who had pleaded guilty to smuggling and a third who had admitted traveling on a false passport. Sentencing of a third smuggler was adjourned ut Street brokerage firms are up against financial difThats confirmed by New York Stock Exchange Chairman James Needham. He says Big Board members had a deficit of $152 million for the first five months of this year against total profits of $580 million for the like period last year. The nations largest brokerage house slashed salaries 20 per cent of all its officers, and somewhate less down the line of its employes. Another huge brokerage house announced a deficit in operations and voted not to pay a dividend to its stockholders. Reason: Sharp drop in daily trading volume, because of political uncertainties. Wall ficulties. . top-lev- el The price of a stock exchange membership is based on the future of the industrys prospects, and not on emotional action as when investors buy or sell stocks. Membership prices show the industrys future is bleak. Late in 1968 and early 1969 New York Stock Exchange memberships changed hands at $515,000. Memberships changed handa few weeks agoat only $72,000. That tells a complete story. It is no better on the American Stock Exchange. A meme bership on that trading market ran as high peak) as A in 1969. few weeks one hands at only $350,000 ago changed $27,000. It may be a better bargain than some of the listed stocks. (all-tim- |