One of the more remarkable changes at the Supreme Court in recent years has been the flipped dynamics on federal criminal law. Synder v. United States turns on the line between a bribe and a gratuity. A generation ago, if Snyder v. United States came to the Supreme Court, it would have been a 7-2 ruling in favor of the federal government. The Court's conservatives and moderates would have gladly agreed with the Solicitor General's reading of the Section 666 (if ever there was an aptly numbered statute), with Justices Brennan and Marshall in dissent.
But today, the vote is just the other way. Justice Jackson wrote a dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, upholding the SG's broad reading of federal criminal law. Jackson wrote:
We took this case to resolve "[w]hether section 666 criminalizes gratuities, i.e., payments in recognition of actions the official has already taken or committed to take, without any quid pro quo agreement to take those actions." Pet. for Cert. I. The majority today answers no, when the answer to that question should be an unequivocal yes.
