ABSTRACT
In United States v. National Treasury Employees Union, 513 US 454, a split US Supreme Court struck down the honoraria ban in section 501 of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The divided Court held that the ban on federal employees accepting compensation for activities outside the scope of their employment, such as speechmaking or publishing, violated employees' freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the Constitution. A major concern of both courts was the lack of a nexus between the employee's specific job responsibilities and duties and the skill for which the individual received an honorarium. In upholding the lower courts and outlawing the honoraria ban, the majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, noted the significant contributions to the marketplace of ideas made by federal employees writing in their spare time. The dissenters argued that the government must have broad authority in regulating the activities of its employees, such as controlling their partisan political activity.
