[4] Hatch was profoundly affected by the loss of his older brother Jesse, a U.S. Army Air Forces nose turret gunner with the 725th Bombardment Squadron who was killed on February 7, 1945, when the B-24 he was aboard was shot down over Austria.

[10] In 1976, in his first run for public office, Hatch was elected to the United States Senate, defeating Democrat Frank Moss, a three-term incumbent.

[31] It was reported that he was on Ronald Reagan's short list of candidates to succeed Lewis F. Powell Jr. on the Supreme Court, but was passed over at least in part because of the Ineligibility Clause.

[33] Hatch "worked across the aisle to pass landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program".

For good or for ill."[38] The editorial criticized Hatch for his role in the size reduction of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and accused him of lacking integrity.

Elements of the bill were criticised by the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee on civil liberties grounds, especially the new limits imposed on habeas corpus in capital cases.

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Hank Brown (R-CO), noted that a key strategy of "BCCI's successful secret acquisitions of U.S. banks in the face of regulatory suspicion was its aggressive use of a series of prominent Americans," Clifford amongst them.

[79] Hatch critiqued President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from seven Muslim countries until better screening methods are devised.

[80] As ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch fought hard to get conservative judges nominated to the Supreme Court.

[87] On March 13, 2016, regarding the nomination of Supreme Court candidates by Obama, Hatch stated "a number of factors have led me to conclude that under current circumstances the Senate should defer the confirmation process until the next president is sworn in.

"[88] Hatch was long a proponent of expanding intellectual property rights and in 1997 introduced the Senate version of the Copyright Term Extension Act.

[95] In 2012, Hatch recommended and supported District Court Judge Robert Shelby, a Barack Obama appointee, though Utah Senator Mike Lee voted against him in the Judiciary Committee.

[96][97][98] In April 2013, Hatch stated that he viewed same-sex marriage as "undermining the very basis of marital law", but declined to support a Federal Marriage Amendment and endorsed same-sex couples' right to form a civil union, stating that the law should "give gay people the same rights as married people".

[99] Later that same year, Hatch voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation creating protected classes for those identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

[103] Over the next 13 years White's articles detailed how the government determined to proceed with the tests, and with mining and refining, without adequate safeguards for innocent citizens whose health would be damaged.

[104] Though Hatch feared an investigation would endanger the nation's nuclear deterrence versus the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, by 1979 he was pushing for hearings on the issue before the Senate Labor Committee.

His hold on consideration of the treaty eventually got agreement from the Reagan administration to agree not to oppose radiation compensation for Utah citizens, but it still took another five years to get the bill through.

This bill takes a balanced approach to the problem of prescription drug abuse by clarifying penalties for manufacturing or dispensing outside approved procedures while helping to ensure that supply chains to legitimate users remain intact".

[113] Critics of the bill claim the new law fuels the opioid crisis by limiting the DEA's ability to halt production and distribution by predatory drug companies.

"[119] Mulrooney compared the corrective action plan to one that would "allow bank robbers to round up and return inkstained money and agree not to rob any more banks—all before any of those wrongdoers actually admit fault and without any consequence that might deter such behavior in the future.

"[122] Republican Pat Toomey expressed doubts that a conspiracy existed, but still suggested amending the bill: "I'm a little surprised that it passed unanimously in both houses, was signed by President Obama and got no opposition from the DEA at the time.

[125] Hatch was the main author of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protected all religions' right to build church facilities on private property.

And by any measure he is.”[136] Hatch voted for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999, saying "committing crimes of moral turpitude such as perjury and obstruction of justice go to the heart of qualification for public office ...

The firm was formed in 2001 with Jack Martin, a staff aide to Hatch for six years, and H. Laird Walker, described as a close associate of the senator.

[148] In March 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that the firm was formed with Hatch's personal encouragement and that he saw no conflict of interest in working on issues that involved his son's clients.

Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC was paid $120,000 by PhRMA in 2007 to lobby Congress on pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration legislation.

[150] In January 2024, his son, Brent, declared his candidacy to replace Mitt Romney as a United States Senator for Utah in the 2024 election.

Hatch served as a Latter-day Saint missionary in what was called the "Great Lakes States Mission" essentially covering large parts of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

[165] In March 1997, Hatch and Janice Kapp Perry jointly recorded an album with Tree Music entitled My God Is Love.

[167] Hatch appeared as himself, alongside Chuck Grassley, in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning drama Traffic, in a brief cameo in a scene set during a Washington, D.C. cocktail party.