Supreme Court Tosses Corruption Conviction of Former Indiana Mayor

The Supreme Court voted 6–3 on June 26 to toss the conviction of James Snyder, a former small-town mayor in Indiana, who was convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity. The court held that federal law prohibits bribes to state and local officials but does not make it a crime for those officials to accept gratuities for their past acts. A bribe involves future behavior; a gratuity involves an act that has taken place. The majority opinion in Snyder v. United States was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The justices had appeared willing during oral arguments on April 15 to rein in the broad sweep of a public corruption law that civil libertarians say has been used overzealously by prosecutors in recent years. The law criminalizes the receipt of gifts by certain government employees....