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The State of Supreme Court Jurisprudence On Public Corruption

By Carrie H. Cohen and Allison M. Magnarelli
July 01, 2024

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez's trial for bribery, fraud and corruption-related offenses could become yet another opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to further narrow federal anti‑corruption law. Indeed, in the past decade, each time the Supreme Court has taken certiorari in a public corruption case, the court has reversed trial convictions and limited the types of conduct that constitute a federal bribery offense.

This trend started with the court's unanimous decision in McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550 (2016). Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia, accepted $175,000 in benefits from an executive officer of a nutritional supplement researching company. The company's motive in giving this money to McDonnell was to encourage him to set up a meeting with decision makers at the University of Virginia, a public university, to convince the University to approve research related to its supplement. McDonnell was charged and convicted of honest services fraud and extortion under color of official right under 18 U.S.C. §§1349 and 1951, respectively.

The issue on appeal was the district court's jury charge, which defined the term "official act" to encompass "acts that a public official customarily performs," including acts "in furtherance of longer-term goals" or "in a series of steps to exercise or influence or achieve an end."

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