Lifting the Fog Over Lobbying Compliance - updated with impact of COVID-19 on NYS lobbying community
[WEBINAR] "Walking the Line" - Public Agencies', Officials' and Employees' Roles in Local Elections
[WEBINAR] Who Does What? Defining Proper Roles for Staff and Elected Officials
Bribery & Corruption in the Military. A Front-Line View (Part II)
Ethics Laws and the Importance of Transparency for Public Officials
Blogging for Lawyers
Previous posts have discussed the substantial uncertainty around the meaning of “corruptly,” a mens rea term used across a variety of federal criminal statutes in the areas of public corruption, financial regulation, and...more
On June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States released its opinion in Snyder v. United States, holding that 18 U.S.C. §666, relating to theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, forbids bribes...more
On June 26, 2024, the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, held that 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B) (“§ 666”) does not prohibit gratuities made to state or local government officials for past official acts. Rather, the...more
In a pair of rulings issued near the end of the last Term, Fischer v. United States and Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court continued to cut back on the Justice Department’s interpretation and enforcement of criminal...more
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal anti-bribery statute does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts taken in the past....more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in a public corruption case that could have a lasting impact on how the U.S. Government prosecutes corruption and procurement fraud cases involving state and local...more
Readers of prior Firm client alerts in the white-collar criminal space will no doubt recall the Supreme Court's recent trend of scaling back the powers of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in prosecuting public corruption...more
In Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is not a federal crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities under 18 U.S.C. § 666. In so doing, the Court overturned the decision...more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the main federal anti-corruption statute proscribing bribes to state and local officials does not criminalize gratuities, which the Court described as “payments made to an...more
The US Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling in Snyder v. United States clarified that the primary federal law regulating state and local corruption, 18 USC § 666, does not bar state and local officials from accepting...more
Last month, in Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States narrowly construed the federal anti-bribery statute. In that case, the mayor of Portage, Indiana worked with other officials to carefully prepare...more
In the latest example of the Roberts court reining in the government’s use of broadly worded criminal statutes, on June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Snyder that the federal bribery statute does not...more
The Supreme Court started yesterday with 14 decisions yet to deliver and only reduced the number by two—neither of them the Trump immunity case nor the Loper case concerning the future of the agency deference doctrine of...more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Snyder v. United States, No. 23-108, holding that federal statute 18 U. S. C. § 666, which makes it a crime for most state and local officials to “corruptly” solicit, accept,...more
Who would have thought politicians can work for tips? Well, that is what Portage, Indiana Mayor Jim Snyder argued (more or less) before the Supreme Court last month, when he sought to overturn his conviction under 18 U.S.C. §...more
In Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States could redefine the legal boundaries regarding federal bribery as it prepares to answer whether the primary federal bribery statute, 18 U.S.C. § 666,...more
Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia moved to dismiss public corruption charges against former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, and his wife, Maureen McDonnell. The decision comes...more
The Supreme Court’s decision in the McDonnell case was expected. It was evident that the Supreme Court was going to reverse the convictions when it granted a stay of McDonnell’s sentence and agreed to hear the case....more
Last week, in McDonnell v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the bribery convictions of Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia. In doing so, the unanimous Court rejected prosecutors’ expansive...more
For everyone who makes a living trying to influence – or just to understand – state public policy, the most important Supreme Court decision of the year may have been one of the last decisions it issued. On the last day...more
Earlier this week the United States Supreme Court handed former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell a big victory by reversing his 2014 conviction for “accepting payments, loans, gifts, and other things of value from [Johnnie]...more
On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, narrowing the definition of an “official act” in federal corruption cases. McDonnell v. United States, No. 15-474 (2016)....more
The Court’s narrower interpretation of “official act” under the federal bribery statute creates a higher hurdle for federal prosecutors....more
On June 27, 2016, in an 8-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded to the Fourth Circuit the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell on honest services fraud charges and charges that Governor...more
“There is no doubt that this case is distasteful; it may be worse than that. But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferrari’s, Rolex’s and ball gowns. It is instead with the broader legal implications of the...more