The law prohibits extortion. Some judges have held that the coercive element is provided by the public office itself. Others require that the official perform a specific act, a quid pro quo, for the fee. Some require both inducement and an act. Although the Hobbs Act is widely used by federal prosecutors, the elements that must be proven vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in the country, depending on rulings by appeals courts.
Some circuits require that the public official ask for the bribe to be convicted.
Others require some special, official act in exchange for the payment or they will reverse a conviction. The Tenth Circuit, Utah's Circuit, has had so few Hobbs Act cases, there is not much precedent for prosecutors in this area to go by. In West Virginia, for example, there was a case where the court did not require an official act as an element of the crime. A former commissioner of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission was convicted of receiving substantial amounts of free liquor from various wholesalers. The jury was allowed to infer there had been an expectation of a so-called quid pro quo, found the benefits were not true gifts, and convicted the commissioner.