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SCOTUS decides honest services fraud statute covers only brides and kickbacks

By Douglas A. Berman

Through a series of three opinions authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court this morning has had a lot to say about the federal "honest services" fraud statute that has historically played a prominent role in many white-collar crime prosecutions.  Here is the early report from SCOTUSblog about the Supreme Court's work in the first of the trio of cases concerning this statute, Skilling: We have the first opinion, Skilling v. United States, 08-1394. The Chief Justice announced that Justice Ginsburg would have three opinions; this is the first. The cases is affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded. The Court rules that pre-trial publicity and community prejudice did not prevent Skilling from having a fair trial.  The second part of the opinion is that the Honest Services statute covers only bribery and kickback schemes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 24, 2010 (boomark / email).