Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors

24 comments

1. What in the actual fuck

2. Jared Kushner breathes a huge sigh of relief knowing his $2 billion gratuity is safe and declared legal.

3. The first revolution was based on the seperation of church and state, can the next one please be based on the seperation of corporation and state?

4. The gloves have come completely off. Rather than acknowledge their own corruption, they legalize it. The Court has lost whatever shreds of legitimacy it had left.

5. So…. 6 of 9 Supreme Court Justices have been given gifts AFTER doing favors and have now conspired to make it legal.

   Why am I even obeying laws at this point?

6. The Republican Supreme Court is doing everything possible to increase CORRUPTION in America. for the benefit of the Republican Party, and for their own personal benefit. Only the dumbest idiots and Fox News anger addicts are still voting for Republicans at this point.

7. SCOTUS is objectively pro-corruption

   Thanks MAGA rubes!

8. If your main reason to stay on the USSC is receiving tons of shady gifts, of course you vote in favor of corruption

9. Let’s call this the Clarence Thomas Law

10. Clean up on aisle Clarence Thomas

11. American conservatives : “The government is corrupt!”

    Also American conservatives: “Corruption is not illegal.”

12. and every employee of a company or lower level public job cannot accept any gift over 25-50 dollars.

    Can you find anything more absurd with SCOTUS?

13. > Prosecutors said James Snyder was heavily in debt and behind in paying his taxes when he became mayor of Portage, Ind., in 2012. The city needed new garbage trucks, and the mayor took over the required public bidding. He spoke regularly with two brothers who owned a local truck dealership that also had financial problems, and he designed the bidding process so that only their two new trucks would meet all of its standards. He also arranged to have the city buy an older truck that was on their lot.

    > Two weeks after the contracts were final, the mayor went to see the two brothers and told them of his financial troubles. They agreed to write him a check for $13,000 for undefined consulting services.

    Those are the circumstances that the lower courts saw as obvious malfeasance and the Supreme Court decided to write it off as a meaningless gratuity or gift.

    And Kavanaugh, with his typical mendacity, frames fhe decision as protecting officials who receive items like framed photographs and knickknacks as tokens of appreciation, ignoring that the law was only triggered by gifts meeting or exceeding $5,000 in value.

14. Gee, I’m *shocked* that a court dominated by justices who take bribes and gifts would say that bribes and gifts are okay.

    SMH

15. Forget campaign donations, under the table bribery, or lobbying this opens the door to a more effective form of bribery where everyone is openly for sale and the wealthy and corporations only have to pay when it works out in their favor. Bribery just got cheaper, more effective, and openly legal.

    I’ve seen people say this won’t be quite as bad as Citizens United, but to me this decision feels more open ended. I don’t believe the repercussions of this were fully thought through even by the ones who wanted it.

16. Good. Lobbying and PACs did not provide sufficient bribe opportunities for me to enter politics but now I’m all in for sure!

17. They’ve been taking aim at anti-corruption statutes for years now. They seem to legitimately believe it’s only corruption if a dude hands you a bag of money with a big dollar sign on it, while both parties look into a camera saying “I do solemnly swear that I’m engaging in this activity corruptly”. Or some shit.

    So really no surprise there. Go figure that the court with people on it who have *personally* financially benefited to the tune of *millions of dollars* don’t think corruption is a real thing.

18. The Supreme Court is totally out of hand and corrupt. It is spreading its corruption now everywhere.

19. What a fucking joke this country has become. Freedom – fuck off. Individual Rights – lol. Rule of Law – suck it peasants. Democracy – when it’s convenient for the establishment, otherwise fuck you.

20. >“The question in this case is whether [the federal law] also makes it a crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities — for example, gift cards, lunches, plaques, books, framed photos or the like — that may be given as a token of appreciation after the official act. The answer is no,” said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, writing for the majority.

    The immediate remedy for this would be to have Congress and states update their laws. I’m sure Congress will get right on that…

21. What the literal fuck?

    Oh, bribes are fine as long as they’re retroactive.

22. >In siding with Snyder, the majority distinguished between gratuities and bribes. Bribes, typically offered in advance of an official act, are “inherently corrupt and unlawful,” the court said. But gratuities, typically offered after an official act, aren’t.

    This is the very definition of the phrase “A distinction without a difference.” Can anyone say with a straight face that “I know our bid isn’t the lowest, but if we are able to win your business, you’ll find a couple of tickets to the Rose Bowl game in your mailbox next month” isn’t a plain and simple bribe?

23. So now our govt is officially pay to play and open to the highest bidder. Just make sure you take your bribe AFTER the fact.

    And I thought I could not have any less respect for the 6 clowns on the kangaroo court …

24. Can we please fucking stop with protest about Palestine / Israel now and start fucking turning that ire and anger to a completely corrupt system here at home?

    Fix insurance companies. No more health insurance. State run. At least then you have a vote.
    Get money out of politics. No more donors, PACs and Super Pacs. You get a stipend, just like in England.
    Put back in stronger anti-corruption laws.
    Term limits for all government officials.

    Get some protests going that will matter.