The Post reports that the Supreme Court granted cert in a case involving honest services fraud.
The court is as likely to be interested in the question that Skilling’s case raises about the honest services statute, which gives wide leeway for federal prosecutors to go after actions of public and private officials who deprive constituents or their employers of the “intangible right of honest services.”
The statute has become a favorite tool in pursuing both public corruption cases as well as those involving corporate greed. In Skilling’s case, Solicitor General Elena Kagan said that the law was properly applied, but also that Skilling would have been convicted without it.