Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-108_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 17.0

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

13 

Opinion of the Court 

control  officers, 

probation officers, human resource directors, police officers,
librarians, snow plow drivers, court clerks, prison guards,
high  school  basketball  coaches,  mayors,  zoning  board
members,  animal 
social  workers, 
firefighters, city planners, and the entire army of 19 million
state and local officials to know what is acceptable and what 
is criminalized by the Federal Government?  They cannot. 
The Government’s so-called guidance would leave state and 
local officials entirely at sea to guess about what gifts they
are allowed to accept under federal law, with the threat of
up  to  10  years  in  federal  prison  if  they  happen  to  guess 
wrong.  That is not how federal criminal law works.5 

Responding  to  the  legitimate  concern  that  the  federal 
lines  are  unknown  and  unknowable  to  state  and  local 
officials,  the  Government  advances  the  familiar  plea  that
federal  prosecutors  can  be  trusted  not  to  enforce  this 
statute against small-time violators.  But as this Court has 
said time and again, the Court “cannot construe a criminal
statute on the assumption that the Government will use it
responsibly.”    McDonnell,  579  U. S.,  at  576  (quotation
marks omitted); see Percoco v. United States, 598 U. S. 319 
(2023);  Ciminelli  v.  United  States,  598  U. S.  306  (2023); 
Kelly  v.  United  States,  590  U. S.  391  (2020);  Skilling  v. 
United States, 561 U. S. 358 (2010).

The  lack  of  fair  notice  for  state  and  local  officials  is 
highlighted  by  comparing 
federal 
gratuities  guidance  given  to  state  and  local  officials  with 
—————— 

the  non-existent 

5 The  Government’s  interpretation  seems  all  the  more  unbelievable 
because  §666  applies  to  the  gift-givers  as  well  as  the  state  and  local
officials  accepting  the  gifts.    Specifically,  §666(a)(2)  makes  it  a  crime
punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment for someone to “corruptly” offer or 
give  “anything  of  value”  to  state  and  local  officials  “with  intent  to 
influence  or  reward.”  So  under  the  Government’s  approach,  families,
students, constituents, and other members of the public would be forced
to guess whether they could even offer (much less actually give) thank-
you gift cards, steak dinners, or Fever tickets to their garbage collectors,
professors, or school board members, for example.