Federal employees can express their support for Black Lives Matter in the workplace, an independent federal agency said this week.
The finding came weeks after President Trump denounced Black Lives Matter as a “symbol of hatred” and Vice President Mike Pence declined to say that “the lives of blacks matter” during an interview on June 16, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Last week, Attorney General William P. Barr said the phrase “Black Lives Matter” was “distorting the debate, to some degree.”
But the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency headed by a person appointed by Trump, said federal employees can use the phrase “Black Lives Matter” without violating the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activity of government employees.
In a memorandum, the office said that using the term Black Lives Matter did not amount to “inherently political activity.” And the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which owns BlackLivesMatter.com and is arguably the most prominent organization affiliated with the movement, is not “a partisan political group,” the office said.
“BLM is a ‘hot’ topic and outstanding both politically and culturally,” the office wrote in a memo Tuesday. “But the BLM terminology is problem-based, not a campaign slogan. Therefore, simply using the BLM terminology is not political activity. “
The finding came when support for the Black Lives Matter movement has increased dramatically since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. His death sparked worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
The office said it had received numerous inquiries from federal employees who were concerned they would violate the Hatch Act if they showed support for Black Lives Matter on the job.
The Hatch Act generally prohibits employees from using or displaying slogans of political parties and partisan campaigns.
The office said, for example, that federal employees were unable to use Trump’s campaign catchphrase, “Make America Great Again,” in their email signatures while Trump was running for reelection.
Similarly, employees would have violated the Hatch Act by using Hillary Clinton’s campaign slogan, “Forward Together,” in the workplace during the 2016 campaign, the office said.
But other slogans or phrases related to the issues, including politically charged issues, generally do not meet the definition of political activity, the office said.
For example, the Office of Special Counsel repeatedly found that federal employees who used the phrase “Tea Party” during the Obama administration did not violate the Hatch Act, because that movement arose largely in response to federal tax and expense policies. . The office said it had discovered that the Tea Party movement was not “inherently partisan,” although at least one group affiliated with the movement was.
“The tea party provides a close analogy for BLM,” the office said. “Like the Tea Party, BLM is a broad term for a leaderless movement that apparently emerged in response to social concerns.”
And like the Tea Party movement, the Black Lives Matter movement includes many people and groups who can claim membership without having to be formally accepted, the office said.
“And to the extent that the motivating principles of either movement can be definitively established,” the office said, “it appears that both were or are primarily focused on raising awareness and achieving policy changes for their issues of concern.”
As such, federal employees can display Black Lives Matter paraphernalia in the workplace and can invite others to raise funds for the Global Black Lives Matter Network, the office said. But they may not say, “If you think Black Lives Matter, then you should vote for” or against a candidate in November.
The office noted that the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained importance after a series of high-profile police killings of American blacks in 2013 and 2014, had become a rallying cry for a variety of protesters and groups seeking to combat the racism.
“BLM is therefore a general term for a constellation of ideas, goals, and groups,” the office wrote. “There is no ‘leader’ of the BLM movement.”
He also said that the Global Network Black Lives Matter, as a group, chose not to endorse any candidate or political party in 2016, and expressly rejected a statement of support from the Democratic Party. In the 2020 campaign, the group is promoting a hashtag, # WhatMatters2020, that seeks to increase voter engagement among its followers, and its website does not contain any candidate endorsements, descriptions of partisan political activity, or requests for visitors to participate. in partisan political activities, the office said.
The Global Network Black Lives Matter and the White House had no immediate comment Thursday.
Two-thirds of Americans, including 60 percent of whites, support the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a Pew Research Center poll released last month. But the poll also found a strong partisan divide in Americans’ views on the movement.
According to the poll, more than 90 percent of Democrats and Democrats leaning support the movement, compared to 40 percent of Republicans and Republicans leaning.
Trump, who has a long history of falsely representing some African Americans as dangerous or lawless, called the Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hatred” on July 1 after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to paint. “Black Lives Matter” on the street outside the Trump Tower in Manhattan.
The Office of Special Counsel is an independent investigation and prosecution agency that enforces civil service laws that govern the federal workforce.
Despite its name, it has nothing to do with the former Office of the Special Adviser headed by Robert S. Mueller III, which investigated possible links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Since 2017, the Office of Special Counsel has been headed by Henry J. Kerner, whom Trump named.
