The Supreme Court unanimously overturned the public corruption conviction of Joe Percoco, formerly a longtime aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a May 11 ruling.
The new decision, a defeat for the Biden administration, is a blow to prosecutors and the federal honest-services fraud statute, which some lawyers and civil libertarians say is vague and overbroad.
In recent years the court has been willing to overturn corruption convictions that involve public officials doing things that some think of as normal political activities.
In May 2020, the court overturned the convictions of two former political operatives who as allies of the then-Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, orchestrated the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal—the “Bridgegate” traffic-congestion scandal of 2013….