<P> The Supreme Court has several times declined to hear challenges to the act and has twice upheld its constitutionality . In a 1947 case brought by the CIO, a divided court found that Congress had properly exercised its authority as long as it had not affected voting rights . Justice William O. Douglas objected to the assertion that "clean politics" required the act's restrictions: "it would hardly seem to be imperative to muzzle millions of citizens because some of them, if left to their constitutional freedoms, might corrupt the political process ." In 1973, in a case brought by the National Association of Letter Carriers, a 6 to 3 decision found the act neither too broad nor unclear . The court's three most liberal justices, Douglas, William J. Brennan, and Thurgood Marshall, dissented . Douglas wrote: "It is no concern of government what an employee does in his or her spare time, whether religion, recreation, social work or politics is his hobby, unless what he or she does impairs efficiency or other facets of the merits of his job ." </P> <P> In 1975, the House passed legislation allowing federal employees to participate in partisan elections and run for office, but the Senate took no action . In 1976, Democrats who controlled Congress had sought to win support by adding protections against the coercion of employees by their superiors and federal employee unions had supported the legislation . It passed the House on a vote of 241 to 164 and the Senate on a vote of 54 to 36 . President Ford vetoed the legislation on April 12 . He noted that coercion could be too subtle for the law to eliminate and that the Supreme Court had said in 1973 that the Hatch Act had achieved "a delicate balance between fair and effective government and the First Amendment rights of individual employees ." President Carter proposed similar legislation in 1977 . A proposed amendment to permit federal workers to participate in political campaigns passed the House on a 305 to 112 vote in 1987 . In 1990 a similar bill passed the House on a vote of 334 to 87 and the Senate on a vote of 67 to 30 . President George H.W. Bush vetoed the legislation, which the House voted to override 327 to 93 and the Senate sustained on a vote of 65 to 35, with 55 Democrats and 10 Republicans voting to override and 35 Republicans supporting the president's veto . </P> <P> In 1993 the advocates for removing or modifying restrictions on the political activities of federal employees succeeded in enacting the Hatch Act Reform Amendments of 1993 (107 Stat. 1001) that removed the prohibition on participation in "political management or political campaigns ." Federal employees are still forbidden to use their authority to affect the results of an election . They are also forbidden to run for office in a partisan election, to solicit or receive political contributions, and to engage in political activities while on duty or on federal property . </P> <P> President Barack Obama signed the Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 on December 28, 2012 . It modified penalties under the Hatch Act to allow for disciplinary actions in addition to removal for federal employees; clarified the applicability to the District of Columbia of provisions that cover state and local governments; limited the prohibition on state and local employees running for elective office to employees whose salary is paid completely by federal loans or grants . </P>

Congress overhauled the hatch act in 1993 in order to
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