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.
So if a contractor or lobbyist hands a politician a sack of cash before the politico does something they want, that's a "bribe", but if the cash is given after the politician does something for them, that's a "gratuity" and is legal.
Sounds to me that this ruling is nothing more than a move to protect Clarence Thomas from being prosecution for the millions of dollars worth of gratuities that he's received.
Meanwhile...
A solid majority of Americans say Supreme Court justices are more likely to be guided by their own ideology rather than serving as neutral arbiters of government authority, a new poll finds, as the high court is poised to rule on major cases involving former President Donald Trump and other divisive issues.
The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 7 in 10 Americans think the high court’s justices are more influenced by ideology, while only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults think the justices are more likely to provide an independent check on other branches of government by being fair and impartial.
Even a majority of Republicans believe that. So they're not even convincing their own base that they are more fair and impartial than Fox News.
For a branch of government that has no enforcement power of its own, that depends on people more-or-less voluntarily agreeing to accept their decisions as being fair and abiding by them, this is dangerous territory to be in.
ETA: They should sell tickets to people who want to line up in order to piss on the grave of George H.W. Bush for putting that corrupt fuck on the Court.
2 comments:
Thomas just posted a concurring opinion in Grants Pass that suggests that Robinson vs California was wrongly decided. Basically calling for making it possible to criminalize a sizable percentage of the population…I wonder who paid for that opinion.
Mike Luckovich's toon today shows the SCOTUS building with these words on the pediment above:
Don't Forget To Tip Your Justice.
https://www.gocomics.com/mikeluckovich/2024/06/28
Though the mills of the reactionary Right grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small
And another paraphrase:
"The lamps are going out all over America, we may not see them lit again in our life-time"
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