Gov. Blagojevich prosecution

[Robert Sheridan]

The term for it in the House and Senate, I learned as a high-schooler,  
is "log-rolling," as in you vote for my civil rights bill and I'll  
vote for your bridge-to-nowhere along with the monetery appropriation  
needed to fund it.

Surely the SC has addressed the question of log-rolling, as distince  
from common bribery, hasn't it?

Maybe it's a political question...

rs
sfls


On Dec 9, 2008, at 11:39 AM, Curtis, Michael K. wrote:

> This sort of use of bribery statutes is open to grave political abuse,
> since horse trading is common.  The temptation to selectively go after
> ones political opponents (or enemies in the Nixon world) is too great.
>
> Michael Curtis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> [mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Volokh, Eugene
> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:00 PM
> To: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> Subject: Gov. Blagojevich prosecution
>
>
> 	Governor Blagojevich is accused of a wide range of corrupt
> behavior, including attempts to get private sector jobs and other
> financial benefits in exchange for his appointing someone as Senator  
> in
> place of President-Elect Obama.  But one small item struck me as
> particularly interesting (see
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/acrobat/2008-12/43789434.pdf):
>
> "Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS, together with others,
> attempted to use ROD BLAGOJEVICH's authority to appoint a United  
> States
> Senator for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for ROD
> BLAGOJEVICH, including, among other things, appointment as Secretary  
> of
> Health & Human Services in the President-elect's administration ...."
>
> "ROD BLAGOJEVICH has been intercepted conspiring to trade the senate
> seat for particular positions that the President-elect has the
> power to appoint (e.g. the Secretary of Health and Human Services)."
>
> 	It's certainly true that a position as Secretary of Health &
> Human Services is of financial value, and it pays more than the
> Governorship of Illinois.  So I take it that under normal bribery
> statutes, it might well be that trading a Senatorial appointment for a
> cabinet position is illegal just as is trading a Senatorial  
> appointment
> for cash.  But is it constitutional to prohibit this sort of political
> horse-trading?
>
> 	Eugene
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