Does the Pickering balancing test apply to unrelated, pre-employment speech on matters of public concern?

QUESTION PRESENTED Hanover Public Schools fired Petitioner Kari MacRae as a public-school math/business teacher because of hot-button political speech she had posted on social media before she was hired by the school district. The lower courts upheld her firing by applying the balancing test for employee speech first recognized in Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205, Will County., 391 U.S. 563 (1968). Since Pickering, the Court has sought to protect the First Amendment rights of public employees while ensuring government employers can perform their important public functions. The Court has applied the Pickering balancing test, which balances those competing interests, to employee speech at work or about work. The Court has not applied the test to speech that occurred prior to an employee’s hiring and unrelated to the job. The First Circuit did, however. In doing so, it strayed from the Court’s jurisprudence, created an unconstitutional condition, and has deprived private citizens of their free speech rights solely because they may decide to become publicschool teachers in the future. The question presented is: Does the Pickering balancing test apply to unrelated, preemployment speech on matters of public concern?