468
Opinion of the Court
We normally accord a stronger presumption of validity to a congressional judgment than to an individual executive's disciplinary action. See Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 512 U. S. 622, 671, and n. 2 (1994) (Stevens, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). The widespread impact of the honoraria ban, however, gives rise to far more serious concerns than could any single supervisory decision. See City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U. S. 43, 54-55 (1994).13 In addition, unlike an adverse action taken in response to actual speech, this ban chills potential speech before it happens. Cf. Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U. S. 697 (1931). For these reasons, the Government's burden is greater with respect to this statutory restriction on expression than with respect to an isolated disciplinary action. The Government must 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 are outweighed by that expression's "necessary impact on the actual operation" of the Government. Pickering, 391 U. S., at 571.
Although § 501(b) neither prohibits any speech nor discriminates among speakers based on the content or viewpoint of their messages, its prohibition on compensation unquestionably imposes a significant burden on expressive activity. See Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of N. Y.
will promote the efficiency of the [civil] service." Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U. S. 134, 160-161 (1974). The plaintiff in that case stood accused of several work-related misdeeds, including making false and defamatory statements against co-workers. The plurality characterized the employee's false accusation that his superiors had accepted a bribe as "not protected by the First Amendment." Id., at 158-159. Thus, the Arnett plurality merely cited Pickering to support a general statute's post hoc application to a single employee's arguably unprotected speech.
13 As of September 30, 1992, the Federal Government employed 1,680,516 workers between grades GS-1 and GS-15. Office of Personnel Management, Demographic Profile of the Federal Workforce, App. 2, p. 79 (Sept. 1992).
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