Oregon Advisory Opinions January 18, 1954: OAG 54-2 (January 18, 1954)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 54-2
Date: Jan. 18, 1954
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 54-2.
Federal law known as the Hatch act does not apply to officers or employes of any educational or research institution, agency or system supported by state or one of its political subdivisions.
Teachers in public school system are not subject to any state or federal restriction as to political activities.
State Representative
In reply to your request for our opinion as to whether or not "staff and faculty members of state institutions of higher education are prohibited from becoming candidates for elective office under Oregon law", we advise you that the only Oregon law restricting office-seeking or other political activity of officers and employes in state departments and institutions is the civil service act of 1945, now appearing as ORS 240.005 to ORS 240.990. It does not apply to officers and employes who are not in the classified civil service of the state.
Occupants of designated positions in the state system of higher education are exempted from the classified civil service by ORS 240.205 (16) and are free to seek public elective office or engage in partisan political activities. That exempt group comprises the following instructors and officers:
"Chancellor of the state system of higher education, one assistant to the chancellor and all staff members of the state system of higher education in the position of president, bursar, chief budget officer, dean, assistant dean, professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, business manager, lecturer, registrar, research assistant, scholar, fellow, director of athletics, coach or trainer, whether the type of service should be teaching, research, extension or counseling * * *."
In addition, ORS 240.205 (9) describes another exempt group of educators, as follows:
"The deans, professors, principals, instructors and teachers in the Oregon State School for the Deaf and in the Oregon State School for the Blind and the professional and technical teaching staff of state vocational and technical schools."
You ask whether or not there is "any difference between the prohibitions, if any, against salaried elective office, and non-salaried office, such as County Committeemen and committeewomen, delegates to national conventions and others." The civil service restriction above mentioned does not make any distinction between paid and unpaid partisan political offices, nor does the federal Hatch act (§§ 118i to 118n, 5 U.S.C.A., and §§ 594, 595, 598, 601, 604, 605 and 608, 18 U.S.C.A.). The restrictive provision of the state law is ORS 240.705, reading as follows:
"No employe of any division or the commission shall use his official authority or influence to further the cause of any political party or candidate for nomination or election to public office. No person shall solicit from any employe of any division or the commission any money, influence, service or other valuable thing to further the cause of any political party or candidate for nomination or election to public office. No employe of any division or of the commission shall seek or accept nomination, election or appointment as an officer of a political party, club or ORGAnization, or serve as a member of a committee of any such club or ORGAnization, or be a candidate for a political office."
That restriction has been interpreted as forbidding all partisan political activity, including the holding or seeking of political party offices and appointments. However, as to holding or seeking elective office, it has been interpreted as applying only to "the political offices of the state and not to a non-partisan office of a city or town" that has no connection with the classified civil service of the state. See Opinions of the Attorney General, 1946-1948, p. 31.
In answer to your third specific question, we advise you that teachers in the public school system are not subject to state civil service restrictions, and we do not know of any existing state legislation that restricts or is intended to restrict their political activities. Likewise, they are exempted from federal restrictions.
The Hatch act hereinabove mentioned, in § 118k thereof, prohibits political activity which it describes, on the part of any "officer or employee of any State or local agency whose principal employment is in connection with any activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or by any Federal agency". However, § 118k-1 exempts from that prohibition and all the restrictions and penal provisions of §§ 118i, 118i(b) and 118k "any act by any officer or employee of any educational or research institution, establishment, agency, or system which is supported in whole or in part by any State or political subdivision thereof".
To summarize, it is our conclusion that educators and officers of the state system of higher education and the teachers and administrative heads of other state educational institutions as well as those of the public school system are subject to no restriction, state or federal, upon their political activities or political party services.