492
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
In conducting this balance, we consistently have given substantial weight to government employers' reasonable predictions of disruption, even when the speech involved was on a matter of public concern. Id., at 673-674 (plurality opinion). As we noted in Connick, " 'the Government, as an employer, must have wide discretion and control over the management of its personnel and internal affairs.' " 461 U. S., at 151 (quoting Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U. S. 134, 168 (1974) (Powell, J., concurring in part and concurring in result)). These principles are reflected in our cases involving governmental restrictions on employees' rights to engage in partisan political activity.1 In Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75 (1947), we examined § 9(a) of the Hatch Act, which prohibited officers and employees in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, with exceptions, from taking " 'any active part in political management or in political campaigns.' " Id., at 78. We analyzed § 9(a)'s strictures as applied to the partisan political activities of an industrial employee at the United States Mint, and concluded that "[f]or regulation of employees it is not necessary that the act regulated be anything more than an act reasonably deemed by Congress to interfere with the efficiency of the public service." Id., at 101. Despite the fact that § 9(a) barred three-million public employees from taking "effective part in campaigns that may bring about changes in their lives, their fortunes, and their happiness," id., at 107 (Black, J., dissenting), we held that if in Congress' judgment "efficiency may be best obtained by prohibiting active participation by classi-1 In Ex parte Curtis, 106 U. S. 371 (1882), we upheld a statute that prohibited certain Government employees from giving or receiving money for political purposes to or from other Government employees. Ibid. The evident purpose of the statute was to "promote efficiency and integrity in the discharge of official duties, and to maintain proper discipline in the public service." Id., at 373. "The decisive principle was the power of Congress, within reasonable limits, to regulate, so far as it might deem necessary, the political conduct of its employees." Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75, 96 (1947) (analyzing Ex parte Curtis, supra).
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