This decision overturned former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell's
conviction, making it more difficult for the US government, even when it
wants to, to prosecute officials for public corruption.
The Supreme court on the surface creates a higher standard for prosecuting
corruption, bribes, malfeasance, etc., positing that when an official
assists an affluent contributor in giving them access to other state
officials, in this case, and among others, researches at a University in
Virginia, although the public may find this reprehensible, that this is
not necessary illegal.
Monday's decision "leaves intact the ability of federal prosecutors to go
after official misconduct at the state and local level," said Columbia Law
Professor Richard Briffault, and frequent writer and commentator on
enforcing standards of ethics. Prosecutors, he said, "have to link up the
quid and quo more tightly and show that the gifts influenced real official
actions."
The Chief Justice, John Roberts Jr., said that the former governor's
he Sanders campaign has more than enough principled reasons to resist conventional political wisdom and 
