5 U.S.C. § 1503
Section 1503 · Nonpartisan candidacies permitted
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Patterson v. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (1993)
Most recently applied in Williams v. U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (January 1994)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Section 1502(a)(3) of this title does not prohibit any State or local officer or employee from being a candidate in any election if none of the candidates is to be nominated or elected at such election as representing a party any of whose candidates for Presidential elector received votes in the last preceding election at which Presidential electors were selected.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.
Amendments
1974—Pub. L. 93–443 substituted “candidacies” for “political activity” in section catchline and provision permitting nonpartisan candidacies for prior provision permitting political activity in connection with (1) an election and the preceding campaign if none of the candidates was to be nominated or elected at that election as representing a party any of whose candidates for presidential elector received votes in the last preceding election at which presidential electors were selected, or (2) a question which was not specifically identified with a National or State political party and deeming questions relating to constitutional amendments, referendums, approval of municipal ordinances, and others of a similar character as not specifically identified with a National or State political party.
Effective Date of 1974 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 93–443 effective Jan. 1, 1975, see section 410(a) of Pub. L. 93–443, set out as a note under section 431 of Title 2, The Congress.