The federal government faced tough questions at the Supreme Court in defending criminal penalties levied against public officials who shut down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in 2013 for political retribution.
Chief Justice John Roberts argued that one of the officials, William Baroni of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had authority to regulate lane usage on the George Washington Bridge, the busiest in the world., did not stop the general public from using the bridge.The appeal in Bridgegate is the latest in a series of cases in which the high court has looked skeptically – and often reversed – federal prosecutors' creative use of criminal laws to win convictions.
The Supreme Court began pushing back against public corruption prosecutions in 1987, reversing the conviction of Kentucky officials who skimmed money paid by the state to insurance companies. The court reasoned that fraud statutes do not guarantee officials will"perform their duties honestly." A generation later, it added that"honest services" fraud must include bribery or kickbacks.
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