466
Opinion of the Court
as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees." Pickering, 391 U. S., at 568.
In such cases, which usually have involved disciplinary actions taken in response to a government employee's speech, we have applied Pickering's balancing test only when the employee spoke "as a citizen upon matters of public concern" rather than "as an employee upon matters only of personal interest." Connick v. Myers, 461 U. S. 138, 147 (1983) (emphasis added). Thus, private speech that involves nothing more than a complaint about a change in the employee's own duties may give rise to discipline without imposing any special burden of justification on the government employer. Id., at 148-149. If, however, the speech does involve a matter of public concern, the government bears the burden of justifying its adverse employment action. Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U. S. 378, 388 (1987); 10 see also Waters v. Churchill, 511 U. S. 661, 674 (1994). Respondents' expressive activities in this case fall within the protected category of citizen comment on matters of public concern rather than employee comment on matters related to personal status in the workplace. The speeches and articles for which they received compensation in the past were addressed to a public audience, were made outside the workplace, and involved content largely unrelated to their Government employment.
The sweep of § 501(b) makes the Government's burden heavy. Unlike Pickering and its progeny, this case does not
10 Rankin is the only case in which we directly applied the Pickering balance to speech whose content had nothing to do with the workplace. The employee in that case was fired based on a statement in the workplace about an assassination attempt on the President. Satisfied that the statement was not a threat to kill the President, which the First Amendment would not have protected, we concluded that the statement involved a matter of public concern and that the firing violated the First Amendment. 483 U. S., at 386-387, 392.
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