The Supreme Court's ruling said bribery all comes down to a matter of timing. If a billionaire or corporation gives a public official money or gifts before the official does something to benefit them, then it's apparently an overt bribe. But if they give money or gifts after the official helps them out — well, that's just considered a "gratuity." Not corruption. Just... an expression of thanks.
Everyday Americans know that this is absolute nonsense. We know that bribes are a way of getting people with political or regulatory power to do what you want. Whether you pay them off for doing this corrupt thing before or after the corruption is irrelevant. It's still corrupt!
It's worth noting that Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito did not recuse themselves from this case, even though this decision directly impacted them. Thomas has accepted roughly $4 million in gifts from wealthy individuals who had a stake in cases he ruled on; Alito has also accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in "gratuities."
How can Americans have any faith in the integrity of our system when Supreme Court justices are accepting bribes, and then ruling that bribes are okay (as long as the bribing process follows a specific, delayed timeline)? We have to restore trust in our system — and the first thing we have to do is weed out corruption.
P.S. Demand that the U.S. Congress pass legislation making it 100% clear that all forms of bribing public officials is wrong, illegal, and will be punished under the law. Sign the petition.
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