Cite as: 513 U. S. 454 (1995)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
lated to employee speech. See 5 U. S. C. App. § 505(3) (1988 ed., Supp. V); 5 CFR § 2636.203 (1994). Because there is only a limited burden on respondents' First Amendment rights, Congress reasonably could have determined that its paramount interests in preventing impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in its work force justified the honoraria ban. See Civil Service Comm'n v. Letter Carriers, supra; Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75 (1947).
There is a special irony to the Court's decision. In order to combat corruption and to regain the public's trust, the Court essentially requires Congress to resurrect a bureaucracy that it previously felt compelled to replace and to equip it with resources sufficient to conduct case-by-case determinations regarding the actual and apparent propriety of honoraria by all Executive Branch employees below grade GS-16. I believe that a proper application of the Pickering test to this content-neutral restriction on the receipt of compensation compels the conclusion that the honoraria ban is consistent with the First Amendment. See Civil Service Comm'n v. Letter Carriers, 413 U. S. 548 (1973).
II
One would expect, at the conclusion of its discussion in Parts I-IV, for the Court to hold the statute inapplicable on First Amendment grounds to persons such as the postal worker who lectures on the Quaker religion, and others of similar ilk. But the Court in Part V, in what may fairly be described as an O. Henry ending, holds the statute inapplicable to the entire class before the Court: all Executive Branch employees below grade GS-16 who would receive honoraria but for the statute. Under the Court's "as applied" remedy, § 501(b) would not apply regardless of whether there was a nexus between the compensation and the individual's employment. Even if I agreed that application of the honoraria ban to expressive activity unrelated to an employee's Gov-
501
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