Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-108_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 41.0

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

19 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

type  of  palm  greasing  that  the  statute  plainly  covers  and 
that  one  might  reasonably  expect  Congress  to  care  about 
when targeting graft in state, local, and tribal governments.
After today, however, the ability of the Federal Government
to  prosecute  such  obviously  wrongful  conduct  is  left  in 
doubt. 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the  prosecutions  that  Snyder 
describes  as  proof  of  the  Government’s  “not  reassuring”
track record, Reply Brief 18–19, look nothing like the acts
of gratitude that worry the majority.  The “city building in-
spector  [who]  solicit[ed]  donations  for  his  favorite  youth 
sports league”?  Id., at 18.  Well, he admitted to receiving 
illegal gratuities from an engineer who worked with clients
seeking  building  permits  in  San  Francisco.  The  engineer
knew  that  the  inspector  was  a  volunteer  coach  and  sup-
porter of “a San Francisco non-profit adult and youth ath-
letic  organization,”  and  the  engineer  arranged  for  his  cli-
ents  to  donate  to  that  organization  in  connection  with
inspections of their properties.  Press Release, U. S. Attor-
ney’s  Office,  ND  Cal.,  San  Francisco  Senior  Building  In-
spector Pleads Guilty to Accepting Illegal Gratuities (Dec. 
9, 2022).  “[I]n several instances, the engineer advised [the 
inspector] of a client’s donation while asking for a final per-
mit or inspection on the client’s property.”  Ibid.  That same 
inspector also accepted $30,000 in debt forgiveness from a
longtime  San  Francisco  real-estate  developer  and  friend. 
Ibid. 

And  the  “county  contractor  [who]  donat[ed]  $2,000  for
plaques  and  food  at  a  luncheon  honoring  female  judges”? 
Reply Brief 18.  He was the owner of a debt collection com-
pany that had a nonexclusive contract with Cook County,
Illinois, to perform debt collection work.  A significant part
of the contract was the chance to collect fines owed on un-
paid traffic tickets.  An official in the Circuit Court of Cook 
County Clerk’s Office—the entity responsible for doling out
the traffic debt work—gave his firm half of those collections.