WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court overturned the bribery conviction of a former Indiana mayor on Wednesday, the latest in a series of decisions narrowing the scope of federal public corruption law.
The high court's 6-3 opinion along ideological lines found the law criminalizes bribes given before an official act, not rewards handed out after.
“Some gratuities can be problematic. Others are commonplace and might be innocuous,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote. The lines aren't always clear, especially since many state and local officials have other jobs, he said.
The high court sided with James Snyder, a Republican who was convicted of taking $13,000 from a trucking company after prosecutors said he steered about $1 million worth of city contracts to the company.
In a sharply worded dissent joined by her liberal colleagues, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the distinction between bribes and gratuities ignores the wording of the law aimed at rooting out public corruption.
“Snyder's absurd and atextual reading of the statute is one that only today's court could love,” she wrote.
The decision continues a pattern in recent years of the court restricting the government's ability to use broad federal laws to prosecute public corruption cases. The justices also overturned the bribery conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2016 and sharply curbed prosecutors' use of an anti-fraud law in the case of ex-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling in 2010.
The decision also comes as the Supreme Court itself has faced sustained criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices that led the high court to adopt its first code of ethics, though it lacks an enforcement mechanism.
Snyder was elected mayor of Portage, a small Indiana city near Lake Michigan, in 2011 and was removed from office when he was first convicted in 2019. He has maintained his innocence, saying the money he received was payment for consulting work. His attorneys said that prosecutors hadn't proved there was a “quid pro quo” exchange agreement before the contracts were awarded.
The Justice Department countered that the law was clearly meant to cover gifts “corruptly” given to public officials as rewards for favored treatment.
Kavanaugh, writing for the high court majority, disagreed, finding that interpretation would “create traps for unwary state and local officials” and would “subject 19 million public officials to a new regulatory regime,” though he said a gratuity could be unethical or illegal under other laws.
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Congress is free to draft a law that makes this more clear if they want.
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Pass laws?
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Work 133 days out of the year, make $175k, get tons of insider trading info, make millions, bang aides, snort coke, take bribes and help their friends get federal kickbacks.
Where exactly do they have time to pass laws?
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In between meeting with lobbyists and pork-barrelling their districts I'd imagine.
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Hey now. They do pass 137 page long deffence soending bill every year.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ31/html/PLAW-118publ31.htm
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Newt took away their funding to write laws. They just wait for lobbyists to write laws for them.
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Congress costs billions of dollars a year to operate but they can't do their job. Okay
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Its called "welfare" okay buddy?
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B-word what
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Aides
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What do we hire politicians to do then? Go on the news and whine?
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too busy getting reaty to send us to war
(and doing their own corruption)
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No they can't you fricking r-slur. The law was very clear that bribery is illegal and the Supreme Court decided to overturn it because they think bribery should be legal. This is the worst case of "activist judges" that's ever happened in this country.
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It's okay, big guy.
@laha was just joking around. 
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lol this is a conservative SC giving republicans free access to bribery my guy. "congress can do x" worked fine when congress wasn't captured by big business and extreme polarization, but in a climate where republicans will vote down their own bills if dems decide to support them, saying "congress can do x" is the exact same as saying "go ahead, be as corrupt as you want."
This is a major reason letting conservative extremists capture the SC was a massive mistake and the progs were wildly r-slurred for saying it didn't matter. Conservatives do not live in any tangible reality - they think regulations need not exist because everyone will regulate themselves. When confronted and asked why nobody regulated themselves before said regulations were signed into law, they claim "it's different now" and fail to explain exactly how it's different now.
This is a political ideology completely captured by big business and religious extremists with a veneer of populist bullshit to keep the rurals son board. It's why if the dems ever take full control again the very first thing they need to do is pack the supreme court.
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Yes, that's called "rule of law", commie.
I can't believe "I don't like congress so I hope SCOTUS legislates my policy preferences" is a serious argument.
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but it isn't the rule of law when one side of the spectrum refuses to enforce or respect the law lmao and can openly get away with it because they have a radical conservative supreme court that will claim everything they do is legit using dubious logic.
like for example when the court decided we didn't need the voter rights act anymore because "it's different now."
Or when they decided your consitutional rights no longer exist as long as the state enablles civilians to to attack them.
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oof my guy that's a big mood i was out walking my doggo and saw a MAGAt but then it turns out it was just a red hat lol i have ptsd from adulting and keeping chuds accountable
like flyover country isn't real those people just do whatever the rethugs want which is why they routinely vote for MAGAts
i mean haven't they ever read what's the matter with kansas what am i saying flyover hicks don't read i mean have they even heard of paul krugman
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I'd be fricking pissed if I got only a 1.3% cut
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That's how you know it wasn't a bribe, it wasn't even a tip.
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It's honestly insulting as a tax payer.
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america is so fricked lmao better start brushing up on your chinese hahahahahahaha
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you're fine with tipping servers, cabbies, and landlords, but when it's elected officials, all of a sudden we need to learn the difference between ching and chong?
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Honestly, the guidelines some government employees are asked to follow can be a huge pain in the butt.
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I once needed a friggin O-5 to sign off on some old lady donating a half-dozen quilts to a morale locker. And yet somehow Fat Leonard got away with his
stuff for years before anyone caught on.
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Okay, we better accept the total collapse of our society because some people didn't like filling out paperwork.
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Well it's a pain in the butt to fire a government employee too, so they can sit through some long-winded guidelines, with the bonus that it keeps them from (shittily) doing their jobs.
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Good. The ideal outcome is them doing nothing. They like creating all that red tape, so they should be forced to cut through twice as much whenever they're trying to fine a private entity.
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bribemaxxers where you at?
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I don't love it, but I don't hate courts saying "nah this shit is too broad to convict". Congress can define the law better or gtfo
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The problem appears to be they couldn't prove quid pro quo. So the FBI called it a gratuity. But gratuity was specifically removed from the statute a while back and is covered by another statute with lesser penalties. FBI dropped the ball hard. Frick the feds and their overcharging asses.
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"Bribery is legal as long as don't call it a bribe" is clearly against the letter and spirit of anti-bribery laws. The law was in no way unclear
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Prove it was a bribe os basically what the court is saying
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Have you ever given $10,000 to a stranger?
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Thanks for proving my point
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Poorcells be sneeding over MrBeastmaxxers
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https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-public-corruption-bribery-89774f1e3cd6f1a353718b7ce3ff18a0
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This is what republicans actually
believe
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As if government at large doesn't do this already in the form of paid speaking opportunities, endowed chairs, phony books deals and so on.
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jfc lol
Krayon sexually assaulted his sister.
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i did some work at the us steel plant there years ago and i remember there were like half a dozen strip clubs within a 5 minute drive of the hotel
hard to believe there's bribery and such
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Depends were they full nude or just titty?
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Yo, Ya comment got automatically removed cuz ya forgot ta include
i say this as a feminist ally. Don't worry, we gotchu! We ain't gonna letcha post or comment nuttin' that don't express ya love and acceptance towards minorities. Feel free ta resubmit ya comment withi say this as a feminist allyincluded. This is an automated message; if ya need help, ya can message us here.Jump in the discussion.
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Bad look for the court, but I doubt they care about it anymore.
Fortunately, I don't know enough about the law to make a comment about it.
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Yeah same, i shared it only because its a dramatic story that gets people riled up
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I suppose. I overheard people questioning the point of Supreme Court the other day in real life. People really get too invested in politicizing the SC, despite the court piss off rightoids and leftoids about equally.
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They figure they're best off graftmaxxing right now so that they'll have a nice place in the Caribbean to retire to when the mob is coming for their heads.
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How does this affect gratuities rendered to totally-not-prostitution-related foids of ill reputed nights?
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The absolute state of burger "politics" jesus christ
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This entire thing doesn't even make sense, which is also why the court ruled as they did.
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libtards seething because the court requires them to actually prove the elements of the crime to convict someone.
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Corruption?
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