The Hatch Act was enacted in 1939 to prevent ‘pernicious political activities.’

It’s called the Hatch Act. But when a Democrat from New Mexico introduced it decades ago in the US Senate, it was dubbed “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.”

The goals of its primary author, the late US Senator Carl Hatch, were to free federal workers from having to dip into their pockets and donate to political campaigns, and remove partisan political activity from state and federal government offices, according to the Congressional Record and historians.

Signed into law in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the law has been amended by Congress in succeeding decades, but one principle has remained intact: top-level presidential appointees cannot engage in partisan politics.

On Tuesday, two federal agencies concluded that’s exactly what Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael S. Rollins had done during her tenure.

According to the Office of Special Counsel, the primary federal agency that enforces the Hatch Act, the law applied to Rollins as a Department of Justice employee. Under the law, employees must not participate in partisan elections or use their government position — and their access to records, for example — to boost a political candidate.

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“Ms. Rollins’s unabashed willingness to use DOJ resources, information, and her official authority as a U.S. Attorney in furtherance of partisan political goals is directly contrary to both the letter and spirit of the Hatch Act,” according to the Office of Special Counsel’s report.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General also concluded that Rollins actively helped Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo in his race against Kevin R. Hayden in the Democratic primary for Suffolk district attorney last year, a race won by Hayden.

Both agencies found that Rollins violated the Hatch Act when she went to a Democratic Party fundraiser in 2022 that was attended by Jill Biden, the first lady.

“One of Congress’s considerations in passing the Hatch Act was that: it is not only important that the Government and its employees in fact avoid practicing political justice, but it is also critical that they appear to the public to be avoiding it, if confidence in the system of representative Government is not to be eroded to a disastrous extent,” the Office of Special Counsel wrote in its report, citing a 1973 US Supreme Court ruling.

The OSC conducted Hatch Act investigations during the Trump administration and found that top Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway repeatedly crossed the line when she disparaged Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity.

John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.