(Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
COVID, murder hornets, a May snowstorm… how can 2020 get any worse? Maybe the Supreme Court could issue a unanimous decision declaring political corruption totally legal. Yeah, that’s a fun twist on this noxious cocktail.
Justice Kagan just delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court overturning the convictions of the “Bridgegate” officials, holding that federal corruption laws require officials to try to profit off of their misdeeds making petty revenge well within an official’s legal rights. To recap, Bridgegate involved New Jersey political appointees using their official authority to cripple a New Jersey city because the mayor was a political rival of Governor Chris Christie. They were eventually convicted of fraud, but now the Supreme Court informs us that no amount of corruption can land you in jail if you don’t make money off it. Huzzah!
The crux of the opinion is that the “object of the fraud” must be to obtain money or property. Prosecutors argued that the efforts to close down traffic in Fort Lee resulted in seizing government assets, but since that was merely a side effect of the effort to punish a Democratic politician, there’s nothing wrong with it.
It’s another entry in the McDonnell line of cases legalizing corruption on the premise that, once elected, nothing’s really illegal. No doubt this is necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
The decision, like most Supreme Court opinions, carries weight far beyond the George Washington Bridge. With a president who told top aides “to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals” and at this moment is floating a trial balloon for cutting off COVID aid to Democratic-leaning states, this could not be a more welcome opinion. Now there’s no corruption without profit, and as soon as the Court gets around to kicking the emoluments case on standing, there will be no corruption with profit. The imperial presidency can sally forth unfettered by the strictures of law!
And through it all, Chris Christie must marvel at how well this has all turned out for him.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.