Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Page Number: 27

22  JANUS v. STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES 

Opinion of the Court 

In  short,  the  Union  has  offered  no  basis  for  concluding
that  Abood  is  supported  by  the  original  understanding  of 
the First Amendment. 

B 
The principal defense of Abood advanced by respondents
and the dissent is based on our decision in Pickering, 391 
U. S.  563,  which  held  that  a  school  district  violated  the 
First  Amendment  by  firing  a  teacher  for  writing  a  letter
critical of the school administration.  Under Pickering and 
later  cases  in  the  same  line,  employee  speech  is  largely 
unprotected if it is part of what the employee is paid to do, 
see Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U. S. 410, 421–422 (2006), or 
if it involved a matter of only private concern, see Connick, 
supra,  at  146–149.    On  the  other  hand,  when  a  public 
employee speaks as a citizen on a matter of public concern, 
the employee’s speech is protected unless “ ‘the interest of 
the  state,  as  an  employer,  in  promoting  the  efficiency  of 
the  public  services  it  performs  through  its  employees’
outweighs ‘the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in 
commenting upon matters of public concern.’ ”  Harris, 573 
U. S.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  35)  (quoting  Pickering,  supra,  at 
568).  Pickering  was  the  centerpiece  of  the  defense  of 
Abood in Harris, see 573 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 17– 
21)  (KAGAN,  J.,  dissenting),  and  we  found  the  argument 
unpersuasive, see id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 34–37).  The 
intervening years have not improved its appeal. 

1 

As  we  pointed  out  in  Harris,  Abood  was  not  based  on 
Pickering.  573 U. S., at ___, and n. 26 (slip op., at 34, and 
n. 26).  The Abood majority cited the case exactly once—in
a  footnote—and  then  merely  to  acknowledge  that  “there
may  be  limits  on  the  extent  to  which  an  employee  in  a 
—————— 

sions  from  Office,  in  A  Collection  of  Essays  and  Fugitiv[e]  Writings
151–153 (1790).