Justice Breyer refers to Caperton v. Massey as the “bribing the judge case”

November 8th, 2011

LOL from United States v. Jones:

JUSTICE BREYER: Well, there is the same kind of guidance that you have in any case of this Court that uses the technique which is used sometimes, and I think it’s used for example in the bribing the judge case, you know, with campaign contributions. You draw an outer limit, you say you can’t go beyond that. We know within that there is no standard. We’ll leave it for the lower courts to work out and we’ll review it over time.

That’s not necessarily desirable, but that is a method this Court has sometimes used. But even if it’s wrong, I want to know, are you saying there is no limit or are you suggesting one?

This seems to be an oblique refudiation of the Chief’s Capteron dissent where he listed a litany of unanswered questions by the majority’s opinion’s failure to set boundaries. This is an interesting jurisprudential discussion.