Ben Carson apologizes to Johns Hopkins

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39. The official rules aren't always what seems intuitive. In 1998, I was Chief of Staff to a level 3

Senior Executive Service Office Chief. One day he came back from a meeting and was really steamed because someone at the meeting was wearing an "Impeach Clinton" button. My boss said he almost told the guy to take it off but wasn't sufficiently up on the rules - and asked me to check it out, I called out Agency Designated Ethics Officials. They said this question was outside their jurisdiction and I had ti directly call the US Government Office of Special Counsel (OSC) - the folks who keep civil servants from prohibited partisan activity and enforce the Hatch Act.

OSC told me that it was a good thing that my boss had not intervened because, although it might be in bad taste, wearing the "Impeach Clinton" button was completely legal. They said that Impeachment is not partisan but is instead a Constitutional process. They explained also that Bill Clinton was no longer a candidate in a partisan election so the button could not reasonably be interpreted as supporting a candidate, and, that advocating his impeachment was constitutionally-protected speech.

So the take-away was that even when politics align with party positions, if it's an issue instead of advocating the election or defeat of a candidate in a race with party affiliation, then the advocacy is officially nonpartisan and is protected by the Constitution. http://www.osc.gov/