Editor’s letter

When is it legal to bribe a public official? Most of the time, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2016. That’s when the court overturned the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who’d been caught taking $175,000 in cash, loans, a Rolex, and other goodies from businessman Jonnie Williams. While enjoying Williams’ generosity, McDonnell used his state office to promote and seek official approval for Williams’ quack dietary supplement. Although McDonnell’s behavior was “tawdry,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, there was no evidence of an explicit quid pro quo, and his advocacy did not qualify as an “official act.” That new high bar helped the cartoonishly crooked Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez beat his first corruption indictment, and may help him escape his latest. It has gotten numerous public officials off the hook for taking thinly disguised bribes.

As the Supreme Court begins its new term this week, the green light it’s given to public officials to accept lavish “gifts” from “friends” has taken on new, ironic resonance. Thanks to superb investigative journalism, we now know that Justice Clarence Thomas has taken at least 38 luxury vacations, 26 private jet flights, and many other treats worth millions from partisan benefactors, particularly billionaire Harlan Crow. Thomas also secretly participated in fundraising events for the Koch network of wealthy businessmen who fund opposition to government regulation. Justice Samuel Alito also has secretly enjoyed lucrative “gifts” from hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, and then voted in his favor in a court case. In this term, these supposedly neutral, nonpartisan justices will rule on several critical cases on government regulation of businesses—cases in which their benefactors have a strong stake. Is that corrupt? Don’t be naïve. It may be “distasteful” for public servants to cash in on their power, Roberts wrote in the McDonnell ruling, but it’s an inevitable part of “democratic discourse.”