The following is commentary by Amira Mattar, Counsel, and Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director, at Free Speech For People.  It originally appeared as an op-ed in Common Dreams and is reprinted below: 

Opinion by opinion, the Supreme Court has moved towards a judicial framework that insulates justices from growing public concern about their own corruption. In a series of cases, the Court has overturned corruption convictions of public officials who received substantial gifts and other things of value in exchange for government favors in decisions that detail the officials’ egregious behavior and yet absolve them of it.  

In his law review article “Corruption and the Supreme Court,” Georgetown Law Professor Josh Chavetz exposes the self-serving nature of these decisions: the Court is letting other government officials off the hook to shelter itself from scrutiny about the Justices’ own deep-seated corruption. 

Professor Chafetz’s disturbing theory is borne out by the evidence. In five cases concerning public corruption heard within the past decade, the Supreme Court issued in each one an opinion that diminished anti-corruption statutes by either framing them as too broad and vague, or by recategorizing corrupt behavior as simple acts natural to government life. As Professor Chafetz stated to the New York Times, which recently wrote an article about his work:  

“In all five of the decisions, the court’s message has been that “federal law must be interpreted so as not to cover behavior that looks, to any reasonable observer, sketchy as hell. . . . ” Taken together, he added, the decisions make a basic point and a more subtle one. The basic one, he said, is that “the justices keep letting crooked politicians off the hook.’”

From honest services fraud to quid pro quo bribery, in case after case in which the Department of Justice, a United States District Court, a unanimous jury, and a United States Court of Appeals have found the official’s conduct to be egregious enough to warrant a felony conviction, the Supreme Court has thrown out convictions and shielded government officials from accountability. And as Professor Chafetz explained, it has done this to shield its own misconduct from criticism.  The justices responsible for weakening our anti-corruption laws include not just Justices Alito and Thomas, whose records of lavish gifts have recently been exposed, but all justices who in at least some cases voted unanimously to throw out the convictions of corrupt government officials. 

The Supreme Court’s forgiving rhetoric on corruption is not new. Its recent opinions emerge from dangerous precedent set in campaign finance law cases, like Citizens United. The Supreme Court has overlooked evidence of undue influence in elections by entities capable of vast political spending, and instead informed the federal and state governments that their only legitimate anti-corruption state interest is in blocking quid pro quo corruption or its appearance. That skyscraper bar, which notoriously is difficult to document, has proven deficient and led to unprecedented levels of campaign spending where the risk of corruption can only be higher. The Court’s early refusal to enforce a thorough and meaningful framework of corruption created a slippery slope, unraveling corruption law altogether. And now, the Supreme Court is relieving public officials accused of serious misconduct at all levels. 

The Supreme Court’s shocking leniency on matters of corruption does not quell growing concerns about public erosion of trust in government systems, but rather pushes to the public a reimagination of its own corruption as being equally ordinary. It is not. The Supreme Court’s tolerance of public corruption is a self-serving feat to insulate the justices from growing reports about the Court’s own corruption. It must end now. 

Follow Free Speech For People’s SCOTUS Reform Now Campaign to learn more and get involved, and our Money in Politics page to end corruption in elections.