Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-108_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 16.0

12 

SNYDER v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

The Government had to choose between two options for 
how to read §666.  The Government could read §666 to ban 
all  gratuities,  no  matter  how  trivial,  in  connection  with
covered  official  acts.  That  option  might  be  clear  enough. 
But  that  draconian  approach  would  border  on  the  absurd 
and  exacerbate  the  already  serious  federalism  problems 
with the Government’s reading of §666.   

Alternatively,  the  Government  could  recognize  the 
irrationality  of  reading  §666  to  criminalize  all  such
gratuities.  And to deal with the overbreadth problems, the 
Government could make atextual exceptions on the fly.

The Government opted for the second approach, seeking 
to  soothe  concerns  about  overbreadth  by  saying  that  the 
statute, even under its view, would not cover “innocuous” or 
“obviously  benign”  gratuities.  Brief  for  United  States  39; 
Tr. of Oral Arg. 41, 45–49.   

But that effort to address those overbreadth concerns has 
simply  moved  the  Government  from  one  sinkhole  to 
another.  The flaw in the Government’s approach—and it is 
a very serious real-world problem—is that the Government
does  not  identify  any  remotely  clear  lines  separating  an
innocuous  or  obviously  benign  gratuity  from  a  criminal 
gratuity.  The  Government  simply  opines  that  state  and 
local  officials  may  not  accept  “wrongful”  gratuities.    Brief 
for United States 39; Tr. of Oral Arg. 46.

That is no guidance at all.  Is a $100 Dunkin’ Donuts gift 
card for a trash collector wrongful?  What about a $200 Nike 
gift card for a county commissioner who voted to fund new 
school athletic facilities?  Could students take their college 
professor  out  to  Chipotle  for  an  end-of-term  celebration? 
And  if  so,  would  it  somehow  become  criminal  to  take  the 
professor for a steak dinner?  Or to treat her to a Hoosiers 
game?

The Government offers no clear federal rules for state and 
local  officials.    So  how  are  state  legislators,  city  council 
members,  school  board  officials,  building  code  inspectors,