The United States Civil Service Commission ruled the employee's conduct to be in violation of the Hatch Act.

If the employee was not fired, the Civil Service Commission recommended that all federal highway funds be withheld from the state of Oklahoma.

Justice Reed noted that the United States did not raise the issue of standing in a timely fashion.

Reed relied heavily on United Public Workers v. Mitchell, decided earlier that day, for his rationale that the Civil Service Commission and Hatch Act had not violated Oklahoma's Tenth Amendment rights.

[9] Second, he relied on the congressional debate during passage of the Act, which clearly indicated that there was no distinction between active and passive participation.

Associate Justices Hugo Black and Wiley Blount Rutledge dissented, but wrote no opinion.