The U.S. Supreme Court rules state and local officials may take gifts and payments for steering contracts to grateful patrons.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down part of a federal anti-corruption law that makes it a crime for state and local officials to take gifts valued at more than $5,000 from a donor who had previously been awarded lucrative contracts or other government benefits thanks to the efforts of the official.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices overturned the conviction of a former Indiana mayor who asked for and took a $13,000 payment from the owners of a local truck dealership after he helped them win $1.1 million in city contracts for the purchase of garbage trucks.

In ruling for the former mayor, the justices drew a distinction between bribery, which requires proof of an illegal deal, and a gratuity that can be a gift or a reward for a past favor. They said the officials may be charged and prosecuted for bribery, but not for taking money for past favors if there was no proof of an illicit deal.

  • @pivot_root
    3•5 months ago

    At this point, it’s an unsolvable problem.

    The only way to begin preventing lobbying interests from overtaking voter interests would be to have anti-lobbying politicians, and enough of them to actually get something done without being blocked by both the Democrats and Republicans. That would only happen after multiple decades of anti-lobbying presidents being elected, and that itself will never happen because the RNC and DNC are both paid off by corporate interests, so they’ll never nominate a candidate that goes against their masters. And, on top of that, it’s highly unlikely that a third-party candidate will ever succeed when they’re both illigitimized by the media and put in an extreme disadvantage by the electoral college.