United States v. National Treasury Employees Union

In United States v. National Treasury Employees Union, 513 U.S. 454, 115 S.Ct. 1003, 130 L.Ed.2d 964 (1995), the Court invalidated a section of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 that prohibited members of Congress, federal officers and other governmental employees from accepting honoraria for making a speech or writing an article. Noting that the ban on honoraria "affected hundreds of thousands of federal employees," id. at 471, 115 S.Ct. at 1015, 130 L.Ed.2d at 982, the Court required the Government to "show that the interests of both potential audiences and a vast group of present and future employees in a broad range of present and future expression were outweighed by the expression's 'necessary impact on the actual operation' of the Government." Id. at 468, 115 S. Ct. at 1014, 130 L. Ed. 2d at 980-81.