This was received today from a website called pointoflaw.com
June 22, 2009
“DOJ May Rein In Use of ‘Honest Services’ Statute”
All sorts of defendants, from newspaper magnate Conrad Black to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, have been prosecuted on grounds that they violated the federal fraud statute by depriving stockholders or voters of their right to “honest services”. “But the U.S. Supreme Court’s May decision to review Black’s 2007 conviction may put the brakes on the honest services provision. The U.S. Department of Justice is likely to rein in use of the provision, 18 U.S.C. 1346, until the high court rules on Black’s appeal next term, former federal prosecutors say.” That’s welcome news; as Justice Scalia noted in one case, “Without some coherent limiting principle to define what the ‘intangible right of honest services’ is, whence it derives, and how it is violated, this expansive phrase invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators, and corporate CEOs who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct.” [Lynne Marek, NLJ] Orin Kerr and Brian Walsh have more on the Scalia dissent, while Walsh notes the progress of a bill in Congress, the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act of 2009, which seems aimed at intensifying the pace of such prosecutions. End article
Now imagine the court must “Face Up To Fred.” Please allow me to state the obvious. The members, spoken for by Justice Scalia, of the Supreme Court of the United States are unsure as to what Honest Service is. This understanding, which is crystal clear to me, is the single most important component to public trust. Because they openly admit that they can’t master this concept, they have disqualified themselves from providing that service. They have to go. They have to go back to the schools where their education was attempted, return their degree and explain how the school failed to teach them something that my daddy taught me as a little boy. While they “major” in Honest Service. Please let them “minor” in Fairness, another subject that they slept or “partied” through. If they graduate again, we will gather a group of Sunday School Teachers to review their qualifications. If they can win the well meaning parents approval, we will give them five years probation in municipal court. But we’ll be watching. Good luck Your Honors