Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-108_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 15

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

11 

Opinion of the Court 

Those differing approaches reflect nuanced state and local
policy judgments about when gifts expressing appreciation
to public officials for their past acts cross the line from the 
innocuous to the problematic.

The carefully calibrated policy decisions that the States
and  local  governments  have  made  about  gratuities  would
be  gutted 
if  we  were  to  accept  the  Government’s 
interpretation of §666.  After all, §666 covers virtually all
state and local officials—about 19 million nationwide.  So 
reading  §666  to  create  a  federal  prohibition  on  gratuities 
would suddenly subject 19 million state and local officials
to a new and different regulatory regime for gratuities.  In 
other  words,  a  county  official  could  meticulously  comply
with her county’s local gratuities rules—say, by declining a 
$200 gift card but accepting a $100 gift card from a neighbor 
as thanks for her diligent work on a new park—but still face
up  to  10  years  in  federal  prison  because  she  accepted  a
thing of value in connection with an official act.   

We  should  hesitate  before  concluding  that  Congress
prohibited gratuities that state and local governments have 
allowed  for  their  officials.  After  all,  Congress  does  not
lightly  override  state  and  local  governments  on  such  core
matters  of  state  and  local  governance.  And  the  principle
articulated by this Court in Sun-Diamond fits this case as 
well:  A  “narrow,  rather  than  a  sweeping,  prohibition  is 
more compatible with the fact that” this statute “is merely
one  strand  of  an  intricate  web  of  regulations,  both 
administrative  and  criminal,  governing  the  acceptance  of
gifts  and  other  self-enriching  actions  by  public  officials.” 
526 U. S., at 409. 

In short, federalism principles weigh heavily in favor of
reading  §666  as  a  bribery  statute  and  not  as  a  gratuities 
law. 

Sixth is fair notice.  The Government’s interpretation of
the  statute would  create  traps  for unwary  state  and  local 
officials.  Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 411.