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education. BLMGN has not endorsed any individual candidates or, more broadly, those of any particular party. And OSC is unaware of any BLMGN affiliates that engage in political activity or of any government filings in which BLMGN has indicated that it engages in political activity.
It has been said that some portion of contributions to BLMGN may be directed to partisan political groups via the ActBlue fundraising network. BLMGN does use ActBlue Charities to process donations. But there is no evidence to suggest that donations to BLMGN via the ActBlue Charities website are used to fund any organizations besides BLMGN.[1]
Like any number of prominent politically active organizations—such as the National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood—BLMGN is popularly associated more frequently with one political party versus another. But that does not make it a “partisan political group” for purposes of the Hatch Act. Considering that BLMGN is overwhelmingly focused on policy issues, not on promoting or opposing political parties or candidates for partisan political office, it is not a partisan political group at this time.
3. The Hatch Act implications of these determinations.
The Hatch Act imposes limited restrictions on employee conduct related to issue-based advocacy and organizations. Specifically, employees who are on duty or in the workplace may not associate their issue-based advocacy with the success or failure of a political party, a partisan political group, or a candidate for partisan political office. Employees also may not knowingly solicit, accept, or receive political contributions, i.e., contributions made for the purpose of promoting or opposing a political party, a partisan political group, or a candidate for partisan political office, even if such conduct is done on behalf of an issue-based organization. In other words, while purely issue-based conduct is not prohibited by the Hatch Act, if an employee’s issue-based conduct includes some element of political activity or political fundraising then the relevant Hatch Act prohibitions will apply.
As applied to BLM, this means that an employee is not prohibited by the Hatch Act from expressing support for, or opposition to, the BLM movement while on duty or in the workplace. But the employee may not say, for example, “if you believe that Black Lives Matter, then you should vote for/against X in November.” Similarly, if BLMGN were to host a fundraiser to support a candidate for partisan political office, then the Hatch Act would prohibit an employee from advertising, promoting, or inviting others to attend that fundraiser.[2] But because BLMGN is not itself a partisan political group, the Hatch Act would not prohibit the employee from inviting others to a fundraiser that benefited solely BLMGN.
- ↑ See generally Eliana Block, No, donations to Black Lives Matter do not go to the DNC, WUSA9, June 22, 2020, https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/verify-donations-to-black-lives-matter-do-not-go-to-the-dnc/65ecd22d31-d5ed-44f7-adc2-b04a31fed591. If simply using ActBlue Charities to process donations made an organization a partisan political group, then OSC would have to conclude that myriad 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations, including food banks and United Way chapters, are partisan political groups. Because some 501(c)(3) organizations that use ActBlue Charities also participate in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), one of the many consequences of such a conclusion would be the possibility that certain CFC fundraising is prohibited by the Hatch Act.
- ↑ Note that if BLMGN hosted a single fundraiser for a candidate for partisan political office, that alone would likely not be sufficient to reclassify BLMGN as a partisan political group.
