Trump administration to prioritize 'patriotic Americans' for federal jobs

[Wiz Imp]

16. Truman's Loyalty Program has its origins in World War II, particularly in the Hatch Act (1939), which forbade anyone who

“advocated the overthrow of our constitutional form of government in the United States” to work in government agencies. After the war, tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union grew, as did suspicion of workers in every government department. Several advisors, including Attorney General Tom Clark, urged Truman to form a loyalty program to safeguard against communist infiltration in the government. Initially, Truman was reluctant to form such a program, fearing it could threaten civil liberties of government workers. However, several factors shaped his decision to institute such a policy. Fear of communism was growing rapidly at home, and in the 1946 midterm election, Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time since 1931. To examine the issue, in November 1946 Truman created the Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty, which stated, “there are many conditions called to the Committee’s attention that cannot be remedied by mere changes in techniques… Adequate protective measures must be adopted to see that persons of questioned loyalty are not permitted to enter into the federal service.” In March 1947, Truman signed Executive Order 9835, “prescribing procedures for the administration of an employees loyalty program in the executive branch of the government.”

The Loyalty Program has been criticized as a weapon of hysteria attacking law-abiding citizens. The Attorney General’s office compiled lists of “subversive” organizations, and prior involvement in protests or labor strikes could be grounds for investigation. As the Cold War intensified, investigations grew more frequent and far-reaching. As noted in Civil Liberties and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman, edited by Richard S. Kirkendall, “During the loyalty-security program’s peak years from 1947 to 1956, over five million federal workers underwent screening, resulting in an estimated 2,700 dismissals and 12,000 resignations… the program exerted its chilling effect on a far larger number of employees than those who were dismissed”

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/trumans-loyalty-program


The loyalty oath itself was terrible policy and a huge mistake by Truman, but unlike Trump, the loyalty oath was simply to the US Government and NOT the President or his administrations agenda. That not to say it wasn't occasionally enforced politically.

Against his better judgment, Truman acceded to political pressure from a Congress, fixated with subversives, that appeared ready to require perhaps even more intrusive investigations into the personal lives of government employees. To demonstrate the nonpartisan nature of the program, Truman appointed Seth Richardson, a prominent conservative Republican, to chair the Loyalty Review Board. The program had the salutary political effect of robbing Republican critics of their complaint that the Administration was soft on Communism. Truman nevertheless said in his Memoirs that the program was necessary and that it “did give anyone who was accused as fair an opportunity to have his case adjudicated as was possible under the climate of opinion that then existed." He acknowledged, however, that in operation the program “had a lot of flaws in it." Privately, Truman admitted to friends that the program was a mistake. Years later, in an interview with Merle Miller, Truman insisted that he had always opposed loyalty oaths, which he described as “a bunch of damn nonsense . . . . You canʼt force people to be loyal by making them sign a piece of paper, and it was the experience of my people . . . my family that made me be against loyalty oaths. And I have always been, was when I was President and before and am now."

https://www.historyinink.com/1102101_Truman_TLS_1-4-1947.htm

“During the loyalty-security program’s peak years from 1947 to 1956, over five million federal workers underwent screening, resulting in an estimated 2,700 dismissals and 12,000 resignations… the program exerted its chilling effect on a far larger number of employees than those who were dismissed”

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/trumans-loyalty-program

The oaths were repeatedly challenged on grounds that they violated the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of association. The United States Supreme Court avoided addressing these problems during the McCarthy Era. During the 1960s, it began striking down such oaths on the basis of vagueness and undue breadth.

The last major loyalty oath case heard by the court was decided in 1972, when it upheld a requirement that State of Massachusetts employees swear to uphold and defend the Constitution and to "oppose the overthrow of the [government] by force, violence, or by any illegal or unconstitutional method".

During a case in 1972, Cole v. Richardson, the court declared four requirements needed for an oath to clear First Amendment muster:

1. It cannot go against the First or Fourteenth Amendment rights.
2. The oath cannot keep an employee from participating in protected public speaking.
3. Freedom of association cannot be used in oath as protected by the Constitution.
4. The oath should be direct and clear, so no question comes to what is meant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_oath#:~:text=On%20March%2021%2C%201947%2C%20concerned,known%20as%20the%20%22Loyalty%20Order.