Unreasonably Hatched.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Reviewing the Hatch Act - Brief article

A Pennsylvania police officer has been told he can't run for the local school board because his bomb-sniffing dog is funded by the Department of Homeland Security. If that doesn't make much sense to you, you should support the campaign by Carolyn Lerner, the Office of Special Counsel head previously praised in this column, to amend the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from participating in politics. It now forces state and local officials who want to run for part-time jobs like the school board to give up their full-time job with state or local government simply because their agencies receive some federal money.

Actually, I support an even broader review of the Hatch Act, at least when we have a more capable Congress than we do now. It was originally passed by a...