George Costanza
A Friendly Liberal
Well, Bush's gang of Right-Wing jurists just keeps rolling along. The most recent outrage concerns The Supreme's efforts to save the lovable asses of those two corporate crooks, former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling and former newspaper magnate, Conrad Black. Skillings and Black had been convicted under the so-called "honest services" law which makes it illegal to deny someone the intangible right to one's "honest services."
Admittedly a somewhat vague statute, The Supremes eliminated that feature by ruling in these cases that the honest services law may only be used to prosecute bribes and kickbacks, neither of which Skilling or Black had been guilty of. (They both remain in prison however on other convictions.)
This ruling of The Supremes greatly lessens the ability of prosecutors to go after corporate biggies for screwing others, and greatly broadens the ability of corporate biggies to do precisely that - something near and dear to the lovable heart of the GOP, of course. For example, conflicts of interest are no longer on the list of offenses punishable under the law. Henceforth, if Clarence Crass, CEO of Up Yours, Inc., awards a huge contract to a construction firm in which his wife is a major shareholder, he can no longer be prosecuted under the honest services law. Formerly, he could have been.
I'm telling you - we are flipping IN for it.
SCOTUSblog “Honest services” law pared down
Admittedly a somewhat vague statute, The Supremes eliminated that feature by ruling in these cases that the honest services law may only be used to prosecute bribes and kickbacks, neither of which Skilling or Black had been guilty of. (They both remain in prison however on other convictions.)
This ruling of The Supremes greatly lessens the ability of prosecutors to go after corporate biggies for screwing others, and greatly broadens the ability of corporate biggies to do precisely that - something near and dear to the lovable heart of the GOP, of course. For example, conflicts of interest are no longer on the list of offenses punishable under the law. Henceforth, if Clarence Crass, CEO of Up Yours, Inc., awards a huge contract to a construction firm in which his wife is a major shareholder, he can no longer be prosecuted under the honest services law. Formerly, he could have been.
I'm telling you - we are flipping IN for it.
SCOTUSblog “Honest services” law pared down