Justice Jackson Lobs Snark At Supreme Court In Dissent On Government 'Greed'

Ketanji Brown Jackson took aim at public corruption from a bench that is immersed in an enduring corruption scandal of its own.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had sharp words for her conservative colleagues Wednesday in a case revolving around a public official accused of accepting a bribe.

In the case, former small-town mayor James Snyder asked the court to determine whether a particular federal criminal statute makes it illegal for public officials to accept compensation from people or entities they help in their official role — as he did by taking a $13,000 check from a company after awarding it city contracts.

The high court’s conservative majority came down on Snyder’s side, deciding in part that the statute doesn’t cover tokens of gratitude to public officials. The statute bans people from giving gifts to officials before said officials do them a favor. But giving gifts after a favor was a different story, they said, and Snyder took a payment afterward.

Jackson disagreed.

“Greed makes governments — at every level — less responsive, less efficient, and less trustworthy from the perspective of the communities they serve,” she began her opinion.