United States, et al. v. National Treasury Employees Union et al. (513 U.S. 454)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 22, 1995 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 513 U.S. 454 · 115 S. Ct. 1003
- Decided
- February 22, 1995
- Term
- October Term 1994
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1989 Congress enacted a law that broadly prohibits federal employees from accepting any compensation for making speeches or writing articles. The prohibition applies even when neither the subject of the speech or article nor the person or group paying for it has any connection with the employee’s official duties. We must decide whether that statutory prohibition comports with the Constitution’s command that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” We hold that it does not. I In 1967 Congress authorized the appointment every four years of a special Commission on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Salaries, whose principal function would be to recommend appropriate levels of compensation for the top positions in all three branches of the Federal Government. Each of the first five Quadrennial Commissions recommended significant salary increases, but those recommendations went largely ignored. The Report of the 1989 Quadrennial Commission, however, was instrumental in leading to the enactment of the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, which contains the provision challenged in this case. The 1989 Quadrennial Commission’s report noted that inflation had decreased the salary levels for senior Government officials, measured in constant dollars, by approximately 35% since 1969. The report “also found that…
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