Cite as: 513 U. S. 454 (1995)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
and employees in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government from taking " 'any active part in political management or in political campaigns.' " Mitchell, supra, at 78. The penalty for violation was dismissal from office. 330 U. S., at 79. Since the right to participate in a political campaign is surely secured in the abstract by the First Amendment, see, e. g., Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 15 (1976) (per curiam), it can hardly be said that the Act protected the rights of workers who wished to engage in partisan political activity. One of the purposes of the Act was assuredly to free employees who did not wish to become engaged in politics from requests by their superiors to contribute money or time, but to the extent the Act protected these employees it undoubtedly limited the First Amendment rights of those who did wish to take an active part in politics.
The Government's related concern regarding the difficul-ties that would attach in administering a case-by-case analysis of the propriety of particular honoraria also supports the honoraria ban's validity. As we emphasized in Waters, "[t]he government's interest in achieving its goals as effectively and efficiently as possible is elevated from a relatively subordinate interest when it acts as sovereign to a significant one when it acts as employer." 511 U. S., at 675. Congress reasonably determined that the prior ethics regime, which required these case-by-case determinations, was inadequate. See App. 257 ("[T]he current state of affairs as to honoraria [is] unacceptable in the extreme"). As a subsequent 1992 GAO Report confirmed, individual ethics officers and various agencies gave differing interpretations to the nexus requirement, and some "approved activities that were questionable as to the appropriateness of accepting compensation." GAO Report, at 9.
The Court observes that because a nexus limitation is retained for a series of speeches, it cannot be that difficult to enforce. Ante, at 474. The exception that the honoraria ban
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