Supreme Court legalizes bribery when you do it right

[struggle4progress]

1. The Supreme Court just legalized bribery

JUN 26, 2024
Conservative justices, swimming in gifts from billionaire benefactors, just ruled that corruption is perfectly legal.

Katya Schwenk

... The court’s conservative supermajority ruled 6-3 in Snyder v. United States, overturning the 2019 corruption conviction of an Indiana mayor who pocketed $13,000 from a local business tycoon after ensuring the company got a major town contract. The justices ruled that such bribes were not against the law ...

“It’s shocking, but it’s not surprising that the court came out that way,” said Kedric Payne, vice president at the legal advocacy group Campaign Legal Center. The decision, he said, “makes it harder to go after public corruption — and that’s been the trend of the court for quite some time now” ...

Section 666, the bribery law in the case, is a major federal anti-corruption statute, an important tool for white-collar crime prosecutors trying to hold politicians and powerful actors accountable. It’s “the strongest law,” Payne said, for prosecutors trying to go after corruption in cases like Snyder’s ...

In the Snyder case, prosecutors argued the mayor rigged the town procurement process to award two contracts, together worth $1.1 million, to a local garbage truck company. Within weeks, a company executive wrote Snyder a check for $13,000. The executive later testified that the mayor, who was struggling financially at the time, had demanded the money ...

https://www.levernews.com/the-supreme-court-just-legalized-bribery/