In section 501(b), Congress prohibited its members, federal officers, and other government employees from "accepting an honorarium for making an appearance, speech, or writing an article.

"[1] The National Treasury Employees Union challenged this section as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment's freedom of speech protection.

[1] The District Court held the honorarium ban unconstitutional and enjoined the government from enforcing it.

Associate Justice John Paul Stevens authored the majority opinion.

Citing the test put forward in Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205, the Court found that the restriction put in place in Section 501(b) of the Act "constitutes a wholesale deterrent to a broad category of expression by a massive number of potential speakers" requiring an even greater burden than that put forward in Pickering.