SCOTUS

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2023 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
SNYDER v. UNITED STATES
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 23–108. Argued April 15, 2024—Decided June 26, 2024

Federal and state law distinguish between two kinds of payments to
public officials—bribes and gratuities. Bribes are typically payments
made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the public
official with respect to that future official act. Gratuities are typically
payments made to a public official after an official act as a reward or
token of appreciation. While American law generally treats bribes as
inherently corrupt and unlawful, the law’s treatment of gratuities is
more nuanced. Some gratuities might be innocuous, and others may
raise ethical and appearance concerns. Federal, state, and local
governments have drawn different lines on which gratuities and gifts
are acceptable and which are not.
For example, Congress has established comprehensive prohibitions
on both bribes and gratuities to federal officials. If a federal official
accepts a bribe for an official act, federal bribery law provides for a 15-
year maximum prison sentence. See 18 U. S. C. §201(b). By contrast,
if a federal official accepts a prohibited gratuity, federal gratuities law
sets a 2-year maximum prison sentence. See §201(c).
In 1984, Congress passed and President Reagan signed a law now
codified at 18 U. S. C. §666 that, as relevant here, extended the
gratuities prohibition in §201(c) to most state and local officials.
Congress reversed course after two years and amended §666 to avoid
the law’s “possible application to acceptable commercial and business
practices.” H. R. Rep. No. 99–797, p. 30 (1986). As amended, the text
of §666 now closely resembles the bribery provision for federal officials,
§201(b), and makes it a crime for most state and local officials to
“corruptly” solicit, accept, or agree to accept “anything of value”
“intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with” any official
business or transaction worth $5,000 or more. §§666(a)(1)(B), (b).
2 SNYDER v. UNITED STATES
Syllabus
That crime carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence. §666(a).

This case involves James Snyder, who is the former mayor of
Portage, Indiana. In 2013, while Snyder was mayor, Portage awarded
two contracts to a local truck company, Great Lakes Peterbilt, and
ultimately purchased five trash trucks from the company for about
$1.1 million. In 2014, Peterbilt cut a $13,000 check to Snyder. The
FBI and federal prosecutors suspected that the payment was a
gratuity for the City’s trash truck contracts. But Snyder said that the
payment was for his consulting services as a contractor for Peterbilt.
A federal jury ultimately convicted Snyder of accepting an illegal
gratuity in violation of §666(a)(1)(B). The District Court sentenced
Snyder to 1 year and 9 months in prison. On appeal, Snyder argued
that §666 criminalizes only bribes, not gratuities. The Seventh Circuit
affirmed Snyder’s conviction.
Held: Section 666 proscribes bribes to state and local officials but does
not make it a crime for those officials to accept gratuities for their past
acts. Pp. 7–16.
(a) Six reasons, taken together, lead the Court to conclude that §666
is a bribery statute and not a gratuities statute—text, statutory
history, statutory structure, statutory punishments, federalism, and
fair notice. Pp. 7–14.
(1) The statutory text strongly suggests that §666—like §201(b)—
is a bribery statute, not a gratuities statute. The dividing line between
§201(b)’s bribery provision and §201(c)’s gratuities provision is that
bribery requires an official to have a corrupt state of mind and to
accept (or agree to accept) a payment intending to be influenced in an
official act. Section 666 shares the defining characteristics of §201(b)’s
bribery provision. By contrast, §666 bears little resemblance to
§201(c), which contains no express mens rea requirement. Pp. 7–8.
(2) The statutory history reinforces that result. When enacted,
§666 borrowed language from §201(c), the gratuities statute for federal
officials. Two years later, Congress amended §666 to model it instead
on §201(b), the bribery statute. It would be strange to interpret §666,
as the Government suggests, to mean the same thing now that it did
before the amendment. Pp. 8–9.
(3) Statutory structure reinforces that §666 is a bribery statute,
not a two-for-one bribery-and-gratuities statute as the Government
posits. The Government identifies no other provision in the U. S. Code
that prohibits bribes and gratuities in the same provision. And §201
does not do so. That is because bribery and gratuities are “two
separate crimes” with “two different sets of elements.” United States
v. Sun-Diamond Growers of Cal., 526 U. S. 398, 404. P. 9.
(4) For federal officials, Congress has separated bribery and
gratuities into two distinct provisions of §201 for good reason: The
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 3
Syllabus
crimes receive different punishments that “reflect their relative

seriousness.” Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 405. For example, accepting
a bribe as a federal official is punishable by up to 15 years in prison,
while accepting an illegal gratuity as a federal official is punishable by
up to only 2 years. If the Government were correct that §666 also
covered gratuities, Congress would have inexplicably authorized
punishing gratuities to state and local officials five times more severely
than gratuities to federal officials—10 years for state and local officials
compared to 2 years for federal officials. The Government cannot
explain why Congress would have created such substantial sentencing
disparities. Pp. 9–10.
(5) Interpreting §666 as a gratuities statute would significantly
infringe on bedrock federalism principles. Generally, States have the
“prerogative to regulate the permissible scope of interactions between
state officials and their constituents.” McDonnell v. United States, 579
U. S. 550, 576. The differing approaches by the state and local
governments reflect policy judgments about when gifts expressing
appreciation to public officials for their past acts cross the line from
the innocuous to the problematic. Those carefully calibrated policy
decisions would be gutted if the Court were to accept the Government’s
interpretation of §666. Reading §666 to create a federal prohibition on
gratuities would suddenly subject 19 million state and local officials to
a new and different regulatory regime for gratuities. The Court should
hesitate before concluding that Congress prohibited gratuities that
state and local governments have allowed. After all, Congress does not
lightly override state and local governments on such core matters of
state and local governance. Pp. 10–11.
(6) The Government’s interpretation of the statute would create
traps for unwary state and local officials. Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at
411. The Government says that the statute would not cover
“innocuous” or “obviously benign” gratuities, but the Government does
not identify any remotely clear lines separating such a gratuity from a
criminal gratuity. The Government simply opines that state and local
officials may not accept wrongful gratuities. The Government’s so-
called guidance would leave state and local officials entirely at sea to
guess about what gifts they are allowed to accept under federal law,
with the threat of up to 10 years in federal prison if they happen to
guess wrong. That is not how federal criminal law works. And the
Court has rejected the view that it should construe a criminal statute
on the assumption that the Government will use it responsibly. See
McDonnell, 579 U. S., at 576. Pp. 11–14.
(b) Faced with the phalanx of difficulties with its interpretation of
§666, the Government’s argument boils down to one main point—that
§666 uses the term “rewarded” as well as “influenced.” The
Syllabus
Government says that Congress would not have added the term
“rewarded” to “influenced” in §666 if the statute were meant to cover
only bribes and not also gratuities. That argument is misconceived.
Contrary to the premise of the Government’s argument, bribery
statutes sometimes use the term “reward.” See, e.g., 18 U. S. C. §600;
33 U. S. C. §447. Moreover, without the term “rewarded” in §666, an
official might try to defend against a bribery charge by saying that the
payment was received only after the official act and therefore could not
have “influenced” the act. By including the term “rewarded,” Congress
made clear that the timing of the agreement is the key, not the timing
of payment. Although a gratuity or reward offered and accepted by a
state or local official after the official act may be unethical or illegal
under other federal, state, or local laws, the gratuity does not violate
§666. Pp. 14–16.
71 F. 4th 555, reversed and remanded.
KAVANAUGH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,

C. J., and THOMAS, ALITO, GORSUCH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined. GORSUCH,
J., filed a concurring opinion. JACKSON, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in
which SOTOMAYOR and KAGAN, JJ., joined.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of
Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543,
[email protected], of any typographical or other formal errors.

_________________
No. 23–108
_________________
JAMES E. SNYDER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
[June 26, 2024]
JUSTICE KAVANAUGH delivered the opinion of the Court.

Section 666 of Title 18 makes it a crime for state and local
officials to “corruptly” solicit, accept, or agree to accept
“anything of value from any person, intending to be
influenced or rewarded” for an official act. §666(a)(1)(B).
That law prohibits state and local officials from accepting
bribes that are promised or given before the official act.
Those bribes are punishable by up to 10 years’
imprisonment.
The question in this case is whether §666 also makes it a
crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities—for
example, gift cards, lunches, plaques, books, framed photos,
or the like—that may be given as a token of appreciation
after the official act. The answer is no. State and local
governments often regulate the gifts that state and local
officials may accept. Section 666 does not supplement those
state and local rules by subjecting 19 million state and local
officials to up to 10 years in federal prison for accepting
even commonplace gratuities. Rather, §666 leaves it to
state and local governments to regulate gratuities to state
and local officials.
I
A
Federal and state law distinguish between two kinds of
payments to public officials—bribes and gratuities. As a
general matter, bribes are payments made or agreed to
before an official act in order to influence the official with
respect to that future official act. American law generally
treats bribes as inherently corrupt and unlawful.
But the law’s treatment of gratuities is more nuanced.
Gratuities are typically payments made to an official after
an official act as a token of appreciation. Some gratuities
can be problematic. Others are commonplace and might be
innocuous. A family gives a holiday tip to the mail carrier.
Parents send an end-of-year gift basket to their child’s
public school teacher. A college dean gives a college
sweatshirt to a city council member who comes to speak at
an event. A state legislator’s neighbor drops off a bottle of
wine to congratulate her for her work on a new law.
As those examples suggest, gratuities after the official act
are not the same as bribes before the official act. After all,
unlike gratuities, bribes can corrupt the official act—
meaning that the official takes the act for private gain, not
for the public good. That said, gratuities can sometimes
also raise ethical and appearance concerns. For that
reason, Congress, States, and local governments have long
regulated gratuities to public officials.
Not surprisingly, different governments draw lines in
different places. For example, some States allow public
officials to accept gifts below certain threshold amounts.
E.g., Colo. Const., Art. XXIX, §3(6) (allowing gifts under
$75); Kan. Stat. Ann. §46–237(a)(1) (2021) (allowing gifts
under $40 per year); Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 268A, §§3(b), (f),
23(b), (f) (2020) (allowing gifts under $50); W. Va. Code
Ann. §61–5A–6(b) (Lexis 2020) (allowing “trivial” gifts that
pose “no substantial risk of affecting official impartiality”).
Some States bar accepting any gifts for specific activities,
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 3
like certain speaking engagements. E.g., Ark. Code Ann.

§5–52–108 (2016). Some States make accepting gifts for
official conduct a misdemeanor. E.g., Del. Code Ann., Tit.
11, §1206 (Cum. Supp. 2022); W. Va. Code Ann. §61–5A–
9(d). Other States make it a felony. E.g., Ariz. Rev. Stat.
Ann. §§38–505(A), 38–510(A)(1) (2019).
Many States make exceptions for certain gifts, such as
gifts from friends or family, travel reimbursements,
campaign contributions, and ceremonial gifts like honorary
degrees and plaques. E.g., Colo. Const., Art. XXIX, §3(3);
Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 268A, §§3(f), 23(f); N. Y. Legis. Law
Ann. §1–c(j) (West Cum. Supp. 2024); W. Va. Code Ann.
§61–5A–6(b).
Like the States, the counties, cities, and towns of America
take various approaches to regulating gratuities to their
officials. Just within the State of Indiana, where the
current case arose, some local governments set a gift limit
of $50, or $100, or $200, or $300. E.g., Butler, Ind., Code of
Ordinances §30.27(G) (2019); Gary, Ind., Municipal Code
§2–472(b)(1) (2021); Valparaiso, Ind., Code of Ordinances
§36.05(B)(6) (2024); Noblesville, Ind., Code of Ordinances
§36.05(B)(2) (2024).
Some prohibit gifts only from business entities currently
doing business with the local government. E.g., Carmel,
Ind., Code of Ordinances §2–184(f)(3) (2024). Others
restrict gifts from businesses bidding for government
contracts. E.g., Johnson County, Ind., Code of Ordinances
§4–6–1–1 (2024).
With respect to gratuities to state and local officials,
many of those officials are part-time and are allowed to hold
outside employment. That reality can create complications
for regulating gifts to those officials, and the rules often
reflect that reality.
Meanwhile, Congress has established federal standards
for federal officials. In 1962, Congress passed and
President Kennedy signed into law 18 U. S. C. §201, which
contains comprehensive prohibitions on bribes and

gratuities to federal officials. See 76 Stat. 1119. As to
gratuities, that statute imposes criminal penalties on
federal officials who seek or accept “anything of value” for
“any official act.” 18 U. S. C. §201(c)(1)(B).
The U. S. Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, has
implemented §201 and promulgated numerous gratuities
rules and exceptions. See 5 CFR §2635.202(c) (2023). For
example, OGE has stated that federal officials may accept
gifts that are “motivated by a family relationship or
personal friendship,” not by the “position of the employee.”
§2635.204(b). And OGE has also carved out exceptions for
officials to accept gifts of $20 or less per occasion, awards
and honorary degrees, refreshments at social events, and
the like. See §2635.204.
Importantly, because bribery can corrupt the official act,
Congress treats bribery as a far more serious offense than
gratuities. For example, if a federal official accepts a bribe,
federal bribery law provides for a 15-year maximum prison
sentence. See 18 U. S. C. §201(b). By contrast, if a federal
official accepts a prohibited gratuity, federal gratuities law
sets a 2-year maximum prison sentence. See §201(c).
B
In the 1970s and early 1980s, confusion emerged in the
Courts of Appeals over whether the federal bribery and
gratuities laws in §201(b) and §201(c) applied not only to
federal officials but also to state and local officials. See
Salinas v. United States, 522 U. S. 52, 58 (1997). In
response, Congress passed and President Reagan signed a
law now codified at 18 U. S. C. §666. See 98 Stat. 2143.
As relevant here, §666 originally extended the gratuities
prohibition in §201(c) to most state and local officials. See
Salinas, 522 U. S., at 58; 18 U. S. C. §666(b) (1982 ed.,
Supp. II).
But after only two years, Congress reversed course. In
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 5
1986, Congress amended §666 and thereby avoided the

law’s “possible application to acceptable commercial and
business practices.” H. R. Rep. No. 99–797, p. 30 (1986); see
100 Stat. 3612–3613. As a result of its amendment in 1986,
the text of §666 for state and local officials now closely
resembles the bribery provision for federal officials, §201(b),
rather than the gratuities provision for federal officials,
§201(c). As relevant here, §666 makes it a crime for most
state and local officials to “corruptly” solicit, accept, or
agree to accept “anything of value” “intending to be
influenced or rewarded in connection with” any official
business or transaction worth $5,000 or more.
§§666(a)(1)(B), (b). That crime carries a 10-year maximum
prison sentence. §666(a).
C
This case involves the former mayor of Portage, Indiana.
Portage is a city in northwest Indiana with a population of
about 38,000.
Like other States, Indiana criminalizes bribery
committed by state and local officials. See Ind. Code §35–
44.1–1–2(a)(2) (2023). Indiana also prescribes civil
penalties such as fines, reprimands, and disqualification
from state employment if state officials accept gratuities in
violation of the State’s Code of Ethics. See Ind. Code §4–2–
6–12 (2021); 42 Ind. Admin. Code §1–5–1 (2024).
But Indiana does not impose general criminal or civil
prohibitions on local officials who accept gratuities, leaving
such regulation to the local governments themselves. As
relevant here, the City of Portage sets limits on the gifts
that local officials can accept from contractors doing
business with the City. See Portage, Ind., Municipal Code
of Ordinances §§2–178(e)–(f) (2024).
In 2013, the City of Portage awarded two contracts to a
local truck company, Great Lakes Peterbilt, to purchase
trash trucks. In total, the City paid about $1.1 million for
five trucks.
In 2014, Peterbilt cut a $13,000 check to James Snyder,
who was the mayor of Portage (and had been at the time of
the contracts). The FBI and federal prosecutors suspected
that the payment was a gratuity for the City’s trash truck
contracts. But Snyder said that he had also agreed to be a
contractor for Peterbilt, providing consulting services.
(Like many jurisdictions around the country, neither
Indiana nor Portage apparently prohibited local officials
from obtaining outside employment.) Snyder said that the
payment was for his consulting services.
Snyder has never been charged by state prosecutors for
bribery. And he has never been charged or disciplined by
Portage for violating the City’s gift rules. The Federal
Government charged and a federal jury convicted Snyder of
accepting an illegal gratuity (the $13,000 check from
Peterbilt) in violation of 18 U. S. C. §666(a)(1)(B). The
Government asked for about a 4- to 5-year prison sentence.
The District Court sentenced Snyder to 1 year and 9 months
in prison. App. to Pet. for Cert. 47a.
On appeal, Snyder argued that §666 criminalizes only
bribes, not gratuities. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit disagreed based on that court’s precedent
interpreting §666 to cover both bribes and gratuities. 71
F. 4th 555, 578–580 (2023). So the Court of Appeals
affirmed the conviction.
In light of a split in the Courts of Appeals over whether
§666 criminalizes gratuities as well as bribes, this Court
granted certiorari. 601 U. S. ___ (2023). Compare United
States v. Hamilton, 46 F. 4th 389, 397 (CA5 2022); United
States v. Fernandez, 722 F. 3d 1, 26 (CA1 2013), with
United States v. Abbey, 560 F. 3d 513, 520 (CA6 2009);
United States v. Zimmermann, 509 F. 3d 920, 927 (CA8
2007); United States v. Agostino, 132 F. 3d 1183, 1190 (CA7
1997); United States v. Bonito, 57 F. 3d 167, 171 (CA2
1995).
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 7
II
A
The question in this case is whether 18 U. S. C.
§666(a)(1)(B) makes it a federal crime for state and local
officials to accept gratuities for their past official acts. The
answer is no. Six reasons, taken together, lead us to
conclude that §666 is a bribery statute and not a gratuities
statute—text, statutory history, statutory structure,
statutory punishments, federalism, and fair notice.
First is the text of §666. Section 666(a)(1)(B) makes it a
crime for state and local officials to “corruptly” accept a
payment “intending to be influenced or rewarded” for an
official act.1 Congress modeled the text of §666(a)(1)(B) for
state and local officials on §201(b), the bribery provision for
federal officials. Section 201(b) similarly makes it a crime
for federal officials to “corruptly” accept a payment “in
return for” “being influenced” in an official act.2 By
contrast, §666 bears little resemblance to §201(c), the
——————
1 Section 666(a)(1)(B) provides:
“Whoever . . . being an agent of an organization, or of a State, local, or

Indian tribal government, or any agency thereof [that receives more than
$10,000 in federal funds annually] corruptly solicits or demands for the
benefit of any person, or accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value
from any person, intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection
with any business, transaction, or series of transactions of such
organization, government, or agency involving any thing of value of
$5,000 or more; . . . shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more
than 10 years, or both.”
2 Section 201(b)(2)(A) provides:
“Whoever . . . being a public official or person selected to be a public

official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives,
accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for
any other person or entity, in return for: being influenced in the
performance of any official act; . . . shall be fined under this title or not
more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value,
whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or
both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or
profit under the United States.”
gratuities provision for federal officials, which contains no

express mens rea requirements and simply makes it a crime
for federal officials to accept a payment “for or because of
any official act.”3
Therefore, the dividing line between §201(b)’s bribery
provision and §201(c)’s gratuities provision is that bribery
requires that the official have a corrupt state of mind and
accept (or agree to accept) the payment intending to be
influenced in the official act. See United States v. Sun-
Diamond Growers of Cal., 526 U. S. 398, 404–405 (1999).
Section 666 shares the defining characteristics of §201(b)’s
bribery provision: the corrupt state of mind and the intent
to be influenced in the official act. The statutory text
therefore strongly suggests that §666—like §201(b)—is a
bribery statute, not a gratuities statute.
Second is the statutory history, which reinforces that
textual analysis. In 1984, when first enacting §666 for state
and local officials, Congress borrowed language from the
gratuities statute for federal officials, §201(c). See 18
U. S. C. §666(b) (1982 ed., Supp. II). But just two years
later, in 1986, Congress overhauled §666, eliminated the
gratuities language, and instead enacted the current
language that resembles the bribery provision for federal
officials, §201(b). Perhaps Congress in 1986 concluded that
federally criminalizing state and local gratuities would
significantly intrude on federalism. Whatever the impetus,
we know that Congress decided in 1986 to change the law
and to model §666 on §201(b), the bribery statute, and not
——————
3 Section 201(c)(1)(B) provides:
“Whoever otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge

of official duty . . . being a public official, former public official, or person
selected to be a public official, otherwise than as provided by law for the
proper discharge of official duty, directly or indirectly demands, seeks,
receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value
personally for or because of any official act performed or to be performed
by such official or person . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
for not more than two years, or both.”
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 9
on §201(c), the gratuities statute. It therefore would be

strange to interpret §666, as the Government suggests, to
mean the same thing now that it meant back in 1984, before
the 1986 amendment. We must respect Congress’s choice
in 1986.
Third is the statutory structure. The Government posits
that Congress prohibited bribes and gratuities to state and
local officials in a single statutory provision, §666(a)(1)(B).
Such a statute would be highly unusual, if not unique. The
Government identifies no other provision in the U. S. Code
that prohibits bribes and gratuities in the same provision.4
That is because bribery and gratuities are “two separate
crimes” with “two different sets of elements.” Sun-
Diamond, 526 U. S., at 404. Therefore, §201(b) makes it a
crime for federal officials to accept bribes, while a separate
provision, §201(c), makes it a crime for federal officials to
accept certain gratuities. The absence of a separate
gratuities provision in §666 reinforces that §666 is a bribery
statute for state and local officials, not a two-for-one
bribery-and-gratuities statute.
Fourth are the statutory punishments. For federal
officials, Congress has separated bribery and gratuities into
two distinct provisions of §201 for good reason: The crimes
receive different punishments that “reflect their relative
seriousness.” Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 405. For
example, accepting a bribe as a federal official is punishable
by up to 15 years in prison, while accepting an illegal
gratuity as a federal official is punishable by only up to 2
years. Compare §201(b) with §201(c).
——————
4 At most, the Government points to 18 U. S. C. §215(a)(2), which bars
employees of financial institutions from “corruptly” soliciting or

accepting “anything of value . . . intending to be influenced or rewarded
in connection with any business or transaction of such institution.” That
language simply mirrors §666’s language. But because this Court has
never interpreted §215 (and therefore has never said whether §215
covers only bribery), that statute is a null data point.
If the Government were correct that §666 also covered

gratuities, Congress would have created an entirely
inexplicable regime for state and local officials. For one,
even though bribery has been treated as a far more serious
offense, Congress would have authorized the same 10-year
maximum sentences for (i) gratuities to state and local
officials and (ii) bribes to state and local officials. See Sun-
Diamond, 526 U. S., at 405. In addition, Congress would
have authorized punishing gratuities to state and local
officials five times more severely than gratuities to federal
officials—10 years for state and local officials compared to
2 years for federal officials.
The Government cannot explain why Congress would
have created such substantial sentencing disparities. We
cannot readily assume that Congress authorized a 2-year
sentence for, say, a Cabinet Secretary who accepts an
unlawful gratuity while authorizing a 10-year sentence on
a local school board member who accepts an identical
gratuity. What sense would that make? In short, the
inexplicable anomalies ushered in by the Government’s
approach powerfully demonstrate that §666 is a bribery
statute.
Fifth is federalism. Interpreting §666 as a gratuities
statute would significantly infringe on bedrock federalism
principles. As this Court has long recognized, a State
“defines itself as a sovereign through the structure of its
government, and the character of those who exercise
government authority.” McDonnell v. United States, 579
U. S. 550, 576 (2016) (quotation marks omitted). Therefore,
as a general matter, States have the “prerogative to
regulate the permissible scope of interactions between state
officials and their constituents.” Ibid.; see United States v.
Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 350 (1971).
As noted above, state and local governments have
adopted a variety of approaches to regulating state and
local officials’ acceptance of gratuities. See supra, at 2–4.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 11
Those differing approaches reflect nuanced state and local

policy judgments about when gifts expressing appreciation
to public officials for their past acts cross the line from the
innocuous to the problematic.
The carefully calibrated policy decisions that the States
and local governments have made about gratuities would
be gutted if we were to accept the Government’s
interpretation of §666. After all, §666 covers virtually all
state and local officials—about 19 million nationwide. So
reading §666 to create a federal prohibition on gratuities
would suddenly subject 19 million state and local officials
to a new and different regulatory regime for gratuities. In
other words, a county official could meticulously comply
with her county’s local gratuities rules—say, by declining a
$200 gift card but accepting a $100 gift card from a neighbor
as thanks for her diligent work on a new park—but still face
up to 10 years in federal prison because she accepted a
thing of value in connection with an official act.
We should hesitate before concluding that Congress
prohibited gratuities that state and local governments have
allowed for their officials. After all, Congress does not
lightly override state and local governments on such core
matters of state and local governance. And the principle
articulated by this Court in Sun-Diamond fits this case as
well: A “narrow, rather than a sweeping, prohibition is
more compatible with the fact that” this statute “is merely
one strand of an intricate web of regulations, both
administrative and criminal, governing the acceptance of
gifts and other self-enriching actions by public officials.”
526 U. S., at 409.
In short, federalism principles weigh heavily in favor of
reading §666 as a bribery statute and not as a gratuities
law.
Sixth is fair notice. The Government’s interpretation of
the statute would create traps for unwary state and local
officials. Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 411.
The Government had to choose between two options for

how to read §666. The Government could read §666 to ban
all gratuities, no matter how trivial, in connection with
covered official acts. That option might be clear enough.
But that draconian approach would border on the absurd
and exacerbate the already serious federalism problems
with the Government’s reading of §666.
Alternatively, the Government could recognize the
irrationality of reading §666 to criminalize all such
gratuities. And to deal with the overbreadth problems, the
Government could make atextual exceptions on the fly.
The Government opted for the second approach, seeking
to soothe concerns about overbreadth by saying that the
statute, even under its view, would not cover “innocuous” or
“obviously benign” gratuities. Brief for United States 39;
Tr. of Oral Arg. 41, 45–49.
But that effort to address those overbreadth concerns has
simply moved the Government from one sinkhole to
another. The flaw in the Government’s approach—and it is
a very serious real-world problem—is that the Government
does not identify any remotely clear lines separating an
innocuous or obviously benign gratuity from a criminal
gratuity. The Government simply opines that state and
local officials may not accept “wrongful” gratuities. Brief
for United States 39; Tr. of Oral Arg. 46.
That is no guidance at all. Is a $100 Dunkin’ Donuts gift
card for a trash collector wrongful? What about a $200 Nike
gift card for a county commissioner who voted to fund new
school athletic facilities? Could students take their college
professor out to Chipotle for an end-of-term celebration?
And if so, would it somehow become criminal to take the
professor for a steak dinner? Or to treat her to a Hoosiers
game?
The Government offers no clear federal rules for state and
local officials. So how are state legislators, city council
members, school board officials, building code inspectors,
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 13
probation officers, human resource directors, police officers,

librarians, snow plow drivers, court clerks, prison guards,
high school basketball coaches, mayors, zoning board
members, animal control officers, social workers,
firefighters, city planners, and the entire army of 19 million
state and local officials to know what is acceptable and what
is criminalized by the Federal Government? They cannot.
The Government’s so-called guidance would leave state and
local officials entirely at sea to guess about what gifts they
are allowed to accept under federal law, with the threat of
up to 10 years in federal prison if they happen to guess
wrong. That is not how federal criminal law works.5
Responding to the legitimate concern that the federal
lines are unknown and unknowable to state and local
officials, the Government advances the familiar plea that
federal prosecutors can be trusted not to enforce this
statute against small-time violators. But as this Court has
said time and again, the Court “cannot construe a criminal
statute on the assumption that the Government will use it
responsibly.” McDonnell, 579 U. S., at 576 (quotation
marks omitted); see Percoco v. United States, 598 U. S. 319
(2023); Ciminelli v. United States, 598 U. S. 306 (2023);
Kelly v. United States, 590 U. S. 391 (2020); Skilling v.
United States, 561 U. S. 358 (2010).
The lack of fair notice for state and local officials is
highlighted by comparing the non-existent federal
gratuities guidance given to state and local officials with
——————
5 The Government’s interpretation seems all the more unbelievable
because §666 applies to the gift-givers as well as the state and local
officials accepting the gifts. Specifically, §666(a)(2) makes it a crime
punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment for someone to “corruptly” offer or
give “anything of value” to state and local officials “with intent to
influence or reward.” So under the Government’s approach, families,
students, constituents, and other members of the public would be forced
to guess whether they could even offer (much less actually give) thank-
you gift cards, steak dinners, or Fever tickets to their garbage collectors,
professors, or school board members, for example.
the extensive federal gratuities guidance given to federal

workers. The Office of Government Ethics has promulgated
comprehensive and detailed regulatory guidelines
specifying what gifts are allowed and prohibited for federal
workers. For instance, the guidelines for federal officials
set forth cost thresholds, exempt certain gifts from friends
or family, clarify what discounts are acceptable, and
explain which social invitations an official may accept—all
with multiple examples to guide federal officials’ conduct.
See 5 CFR §2635.204.
Nothing for state and local officials. It is unfathomable
that Congress would authorize a 10-year criminal sentence
for gifts to 19 million state and local officials without any
coherent federal guidance (or any federal guidance at all)
about how an official can distinguish the innocuous from
the criminal.
When construing a statute like this that regulates state
and local officials, this Court’s precedents caution against
leaving the statute’s “outer boundaries ambiguous” and
involving the “Federal Government in setting standards of
good government for local and state officials.” McDonnell,
579 U. S., at 577 (quotation marks omitted). And the Court
has emphasized that a “statute in this field that can
linguistically be interpreted to be either a meat axe or a
scalpel should reasonably be taken to be the latter.” Sun-
Diamond, 526 U. S., at 412. So it is here.
B
Faced with that phalanx of difficulties with its
interpretation of §666, the Government offers little. The
Government’s argument boils down to one main point—
that §666 uses the term “rewarded” as well as “influenced.”
And that, too, is the dissent’s main point. The Government
(echoed by the dissent) says that Congress would not have
added the term “rewarded” to “influenced” in §666 if the
statute were meant to cover only bribes and not also
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 15
gratuities. That argument is misconceived.

In isolation, the word “rewarded” could be part of a
gratuities statute or a bribery statute—either (i) a reward
given after the act with no agreement beforehand (gratuity)
or (ii) a reward given after the act pursuant to an
agreement beforehand (bribe). But as noted above, the
word “corruptly” in the text of §666 helps resolve the issue
here. The bribery statute for federal officials, §201(b), uses
the term “corruptly.” But the gratuities statute for federal
officials, §201(c), does not. The term “corruptly” therefore
signals that §666 is a bribery statute. And statutory
history, statutory structure, statutory punishments,
federalism, and fair notice strongly reinforce that textual
signal and together establish that §666 is a bribery statute.
Contrary to the premise of the Government’s argument,
moreover, bribery statutes sometimes use the term
“reward.” See, e.g., 18 U. S. C. §600; 33 U. S. C. §447. The
term “rewarded” closes off certain defenses that otherwise
might be raised in bribery cases. Consider a bribe where
the agreement was made before the act but the payment
was made after the act. An official might try to defend
against the bribery charge by saying that the payment was
received only after the official act and therefore could not
have “influenced” the act. By including the term
“rewarded,” Congress made clear that the timing of the
agreement is the key, not the timing of the payment, and
thereby precluded such a potential defense.
And think about the official who took a bribe before the
official act but asserts as a defense that he would have
taken the same act anyway and therefore was not
“influenced” by the payment. To shut the door on that
potential defense to a §666 bribery charge, Congress
sensibly added the term “rewarded.”
So even if “influenced” alone might have covered the
waterfront of bribes, adding “rewarded” made good sense to
avoid potential ambiguities, gaps, or loopholes. Congress
commonly writes federal statutes, including bribery

statutes, in such a belt and suspenders manner. Here, the
term “rewarded” does not transform §666 into a gratuities
statute.
In sum, §666 tracks §201(b), the bribery provision
for federal officials. A state or local official can violate §666
when he accepts an up-front payment for a future official
act or agrees to a future reward for a future official act. See
United States v. Fernandez, 722 F. 3d 1, 23 (CA1 2013) (the
word “reward” “clarifies that a bribe can be promised
before, but paid after, the official’s action” (quotation marks
omitted)). But a state or local official does not violate §666
if the official has taken the official act before any reward is
agreed to, much less given. Although a gratuity offered and
accepted after the official act may be unethical or illegal
under other federal, state, or local laws, the gratuity does
not violate §666.
* * *
The Government asks this Court to adopt an
interpretation of §666 that would radically upend gratuities
rules and turn §666 into a vague and unfair trap for 19
million state and local officials. We decline to do so. Section
666 is a vital statute, but its focus is targeted: Section 666
proscribes bribes to state and local officials, while allowing
state and local governments to regulate gratuities to state
and local officials. Within constitutional bounds, Congress
can always change the law if it wishes to do so. But since
1986, it has not, presumably because Congress understands
that state and local governments may and often do regulate
gratuities to state and local officials. We reverse the
judgment of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit and remand the case for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 1
GORSUCH, J., concurring

_________________
No. 23–108
_________________

[June 26, 2024]
JUSTICE GORSUCH, concurring.

Call it what you will. The Court today speaks of infer-
ences from the word “corruptly,” the statute’s history and
structure, and associated punishments. See ante, at 7. It
discusses concerns of fair notice and federalism. Ibid. But
the bottom line is that, for all those reasons, any fair reader
of this statute would be left with a reasonable doubt about
whether it covers the defendant’s charged conduct. And
when that happens, judges are bound by the ancient rule of
lenity to decide the case as the Court does today, not for the
prosecutor but for the presumptively free individual. See
United States v. Davis, 588 U. S. 445, 464–465 (2019).
Lenity may sometimes, as it does today, go unnamed. It
may be deployed under other guises, too. “Fair notice” or
“fair warning” are especially familiar masks. See, e.g., ante,
at 7, 11, 13; Marinello v. United States, 584 U. S. 1, 6–7, 9–
10 (2018); McDonnell v. United States, 579 U. S. 550, 576
(2016). Cf. Wooden v. United States, 595 U. S. 360, 389
(2022) (GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment) (“Lenity
works to enforce the fair notice requirement”); Yates v.
United States, 574 U. S. 528, 548 (2015) (plurality opinion)
(same). Other times, we clothe lenity in its corollary—that
courts cannot “rely upon prosecutorial discretion to narrow
the” scope of an “otherwise wide-ranging” criminal law.
Marinello, 584 U. S., at 11; see, e.g., ante, at 13; Dubin v.
United States, 599 U. S. 110, 131 (2023). And in still other
GORSUCH, J., concurring
instances, we do much the same when we speak of the “re-

straint” necessary “in assessing the reach of a federal crim-
inal statute.” Id., at 129 (internal quotation marks omit-
ted); accord, Marinello, 584 U. S., at 6–7, 11; Arthur
Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U. S. 696, 703 (2005).
But make no mistake: Whatever the label, lenity is
what’s at work behind today’s decision, just as it is in so
many others. Rightly so. I am pleased to join.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 1
JACKSON, J., dissenting

_________________
No. 23–108
_________________

[June 26, 2024]
JUSTICE JACKSON, with whom JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR and

JUSTICE KAGAN join, dissenting.
Officials who use their public positions for private gain
threaten the integrity of our most important institutions.
Greed makes governments—at every level—less respon-
sive, less efficient, and less trustworthy from the perspec-
tive of the communities they serve. Perhaps realizing this,
Congress used “expansive, unqualified language” in 18
U. S. C. §666 to criminalize graft involving state, local, and
tribal entities, as well as other organizations receiving fed-
eral funds. Salinas v. United States, 522 U. S. 52, 56 (1997).
Section 666 imposes federal criminal penalties on agents of
those entities who “corruptly” solicit, accept, or agree to ac-
cept payments “intending to be influenced or rewarded.”
§666(a)(1)(B).
Today’s case involves one such person. James Snyder, a
former Indiana mayor, was convicted by a jury of violating
§666 after he steered more than $1 million in city contracts
to a local truck dealership, which turned around and cut
him a $13,000 check. He asks us to decide whether the lan-
guage of §666 criminalizes both bribes and gratuities, or
just bribes. And he says the answer matters because bribes
require an upfront agreement to take official actions for pay-
ment, and he never agreed beforehand to be paid the
$13,000 from the dealership.
Snyder’s absurd and atextual reading of the statute is one
only today’s Court could love. Ignoring the plain text of

§666—which, again, expressly targets officials who “cor-
ruptly” solicit, accept, or agree to accept payments “intend-
ing to be influenced or rewarded”—the Court concludes that
the statute does not criminalize gratuities at all. This is so,
apparently, because “[s]tate and local governments often
regulate the gifts that state and local officials may accept,”
ante, at 1, which, according to the majority, means that
§666 cannot.
The Court’s reasoning elevates nonexistent federalism
concerns over the plain text of this statute and is a quintes-
sential example of the tail wagging the dog. Section 666’s
regulation of state, local, and tribal governments reflects
Congress’s express choice to reach those and other entities
receiving federal funds. And Congress not only had good
reasons for doing so, it also had the authority to take such
legislative action, as this Court has already recognized. See
Sabri v. United States, 541 U. S. 600, 605, 608 (2004). We
have long held that when Congress has appropriated fed-
eral money, it “does not have to sit by and accept the risk of
operations thwarted by local and state improbity.” Id., at
605.
Both the majority and Snyder suggest that interpreting
§666 to cover gratuities is problematic because it gives “fed-
eral prosecutors unwarranted power to allege crimes that
should be handled at the State level.” App. 14–15 (empha-
sis added); see also ante, at 10–11. But woulds, coulds, and
shoulds of this nature must be addressed across the street
with Congress, not in the pages of the U. S. Reports. We
have previously and wisely declined “to express [a] view as
to [§666’s] soundness as a policy matter.” Sabri, 541 U. S.,
at 608, n. But, today, the Court can stay silent no longer.
Its decision overrides the intent of Congress—and the pol-
icy preferences of the constituents that body represents—
as unequivocally expressed by the plain text of the statute.
Respectfully, I dissent.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 3
I
Section 666 is a relatively recent solution to an old prob-
lem. It seeks to ensure that “taxpayer dollars . . . are in fact
spent for the general welfare, and not frittered away in
graft.” Id., at 605. Accordingly, the statute applies to cer-
tain entities that receive a threshold amount of federal
funds. It covers any “agent of an organization, or of a State,
local, or Indian tribal government, or any agency thereof.”
§666(a)(1). The entity must “receiv[e], in any one year pe-
riod, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program
involving a . . . form of Federal assistance.” §666(b).
If an entity meets that description, the statute imposes
federal criminal penalties on any agent who
“corruptly solicits or demands for the benefit of any per-
son, or accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value
from any person, intending to be influenced or re-
warded in connection with any business, transaction,
or series of transactions of such organization, govern-
ment, or agency involving any thing of value of $5,000
or more.” §666(a)(1)(B).
In short, §666(a)(1)(B) makes it a federal crime for state,
local, or tribal officials to corruptly solicit, accept, or agree
to accept certain payments in connection with business
worth $5,000 or more. A neighboring provision similarly
imposes penalties on the giver—i.e., anyone who “corruptly
gives, offers, or agrees to give” payments “with intent to in-
fluence or reward” these officials. §666(a)(2). For offenders
of either provision, the penalty is a fine, a maximum of 10
years in prison, or both. §666(a).
There is no dispute that §666 criminalizes bribes. See
ante, at 1. This Court has also been clear about what a
bribe requires: “a quid pro quo.” United States v. Sun-Dia-
mond Growers of Cal., 526 U. S. 398, 404 (1999). A quid
pro quo means “a specific intent to give or receive something
of value in exchange for an official act.” Id., at 404–405. So,
for a payment to constitute a bribe, there must be an up-

front agreement to exchange the payment for taking an of-
ficial action. See ibid.
Legislatures have also considered it similarly wrongful
for government officials to accept gratuities under certain
circumstances, but unlike bribes, gratuities do not have a
quid pro quo requirement. Generally speaking, rather than
an actual agreement to take payment as the impetus for
engaging in an official act (a quid pro quo exchange), gratu-
ities “may constitute merely a reward for some future act
that the public official will take (and may already have de-
termined to take), or for a past act that he has already
taken.” Id., at 405.
We took this case to resolve “[w]hether section 666 crim-
inalizes gratuities, i.e., payments in recognition of actions
the official has already taken or committed to take, without
any quid pro quo agreement to take those actions.” Pet. for
Cert. I. The majority today answers no, when the answer
to that question should be an unequivocal yes.
II
A
To reach the right conclusion we need not march through
various auxiliary analyses: We can begin—and end—with
only the text. See National Assn. of Mfrs. v. Department of
Defense, 583 U. S. 109, 127 (2018). We “understan[d] that
Congress says in a statute what it means and means in a
statute what it says there.” Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co.
v. Union Planters Bank, N. A., 530 U. S. 1, 6 (2000) (inter-
nal quotation marks omitted).
1
By its plain terms, §666 imposes criminal penalties on
state, local, and tribal officials who “corruptly” solicit, ac-
cept, or agree to accept “anything of value from any person,
intending to be influenced or rewarded.” §666(a)(1)(B). Use
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 5
of the term “influenced” captures quid pro quo bargains

struck before an official act is taken—and therefore
bribes—as everyone agrees. Brief for Petitioner 17; Brief
for United States 21; cf. Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 404–
405. The term “rewarded” easily covers the concept of gra-
tuities paid to corrupt officials after the fact—no upfront
agreement necessary.
As a general matter (and setting aside for the moment
that §666 covers only officials who act “corruptly”), every-
one knows what a reward is. It is a $20 bill pulled from a
lost wallet at the time of its return to its grateful owner. A
surprise ice cream outing after a report card with straight
As. The bar tab picked up by a supervisor celebrating a job
well done by her team. A reward often says “thank you” or
“good job,” rather than “please.”
Dictionary definitions confirm what common sense tells
us about what it means to be rewarded. A “reward” is
“[t]hat which is given in return for good or evil done or re-
ceived,” including “that which is offered or given for some
service or attainment.” Webster’s New International Dic-
tionary 2136 (2d ed. 1957). The verb form of the word is no
different. To “reward” means “to . . . recompense.” Ibid.
(defining “to reward” as “[t]o make a return, or give a re-
ward, to (a person) or for (a service, etc.); to requite; recom-
pense; repay”). Both definitions thus encompass payment
in recognition of an action that an official has already taken
or committed to taking. And neither requires there to be
some beforehand agreement about that exchange, i.e., a
quid pro quo.
Snyder concedes that the term “rewarded” can encompass
the concept of gratuities. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 5; see also
Reply Brief 3 (quoting Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 405).
The majority—which doesn’t bother to interpret “rewarded”
until the end of its opinion—eventually admits the same.
See ante, at 15 (“[T]he word ‘rewarded’ could be part of a
gratuities statute”). By that point in its analysis, however,
the majority has already characterized §666 as a bribery

statute. And then, because we typically seek to give effect
to each word of a statute, see TRW Inc. v. Andrews, 534
U. S. 19, 31 (2001), the majority must strain to make the
word “rewarded” as it appears in §666 relevant, rather than
meaningless. It offers rank speculation as to why “re-
warded” in §666 might mean something other than what it
ordinarily does, ultimately assigning the word some busy
work relating to potential defenses to bribery charges. See
ante, at 15. But whatever the merits of the majority’s as-
sertions involving waterfronts, belts, and suspenders, its
interpretation of §666 finds little grounding in the actual
text of the statute. See Luna Perez v. Sturgis Public
Schools, 598 U. S. 142, 150 (2023) (“ ‘[W]e cannot replace
the actual text with speculation as to Congress’ intent’ ”).
2
Speaking of text: The language of other statutes demon-
strates that Congress uses the word “reward” when it wants
to criminalize gratuities. For example, in 18 U. S. C. §1912,
Congress imposed criminal penalties on any federal officer
“engaged in inspection of vessels” who “receives any fee or
reward for his services, except what is allowed to him by
law.” (Emphasis added.) And in 22 U. S. C. §4202, Con-
gress provided for the sanctioning of “any consular of-
ficer . . . who demands or receives for any official ser-
vices . . . any fee or reward other than the fee provided by
law for such service.” (Emphasis added.) Snyder admits
that these statutes target gratuities by virtue of Congress’s
use of the term “reward.” Brief for Petitioner 31.
But rather than simply calling a statute that penalizes
accepting a “reward” for public business what it is—a
wrongful or illegal gratuities statute—the majority insists
that, sometimes, when Congress uses “reward,” it is still
just criminalizing quid pro quo bribery, mustering up ex-
amples to show that “bribery statutes sometimes use the
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 7
term ‘reward.’ ” Ante, at 15. However, none of the major-

ity’s examples use the term “reward” in a way that is rele-
vantly similar to §666. For one thing, the majority’s exam-
ples do not use the phrase “influenced or rewarded” to
delineate between bribes and gratuities, while covering
both, as §666 does. In addition, each of the statutes the
majority points to explicitly links the forbidden “reward” to
an agreement to take some specific action; in other words,
the majority’s examples specify, by their plain text, a quid
pro quo. For example, 18 U. S. C. §600 imposes federal
criminal penalties on anyone who “promises,” inter alia,
jobs or benefits “provided for or made possible in whole or
in part by any Act of Congress” to another person “as con-
sideration, favor, or reward for” certain political activity.
That statute identifies both a forbidden quid (a future job)
and quo (political activity).1
In contrast with those statutes, when §666 uses “re-
warded,” it never connects that term to some upfront ex-
change. What the majority’s examples actually show, then,
is that when Congress wants to use the term “reward” to
encompass only bribes, it knows just how to do so. See Hen-
son v. Santander Consumer USA Inc., 582 U. S. 79, 86
(2017) (“[W]e presume differences in language like this con-
vey differences in meaning”).
B
In an attempt to shore up its unnatural reading of §666,
the majority turns to statutory and legislative history.
Ante, at 5, 8–9. Where appropriate, I, too, find statutory
and legislative history to be useful tools that this Court can
and should consult. See, e.g., Delaware v. Pennsylvania,
——————
1 See also 33 U. S. C. §447 (imposing penalties on “[e]very person
who . . . gives any sum of money or other bribe, present, or reward . . . to

any . . . employee of the office of any supervisor of a harbor with intent
to influence such . . . employee to permit or overlook any violation of the
provisions of this subchapter”).
598 U. S. 115, 138–139 (2023). But resort to these tools is

questionable under certain circumstances. See Milner v.
Department of Navy, 562 U. S. 562, 574 (2011) (“When pre-
sented, on the one hand, with clear statutory language and,
on the other, with dueling committee reports, we must
choose the language”). In any event, here, the statutory and
legislative history only make matters worse for the major-
ity’s analysis.
Section 666 traces its lineage to 18 U. S. C. §201, though
the kinship is more attenuated than the majority lets on.
Section 201 indeed “contains comprehensive prohibitions
on bribes and gratuities to federal officials.” Ante, at 4 (dis-
cussing §§201(b)–(c)). But initially, it was not entirely clear
which officials that federal statute covered. By its terms,
§201 applies broadly to “public officials,” see §201(a), and
confusion arose among some lower courts as to “whether
state and local employees could be considered ‘public offi-
cials’ ” under the statute. Salinas, 522 U. S., at 58. Without
awaiting our resolution of the issue, Congress enacted §666
in 1984. Ibid.; see also 98 Stat. 2143.
In §666, Congress expressly sought to reach state and lo-
cal officials “to protect the integrity of the vast sums of
money distributed through Federal programs.” S. Rep.
No. 98–225, p. 370 (1983). As originally enacted, §666
barred those officials from soliciting, accepting, or agreeing
to accept “anything of value . . . for or because of the recipi-
ent’s conduct,” §666(b) (1982 ed., Supp. II), using language
similar to that in §201(c), the federal-official gratuities pro-
vision. Crucially, no one disputes that when it was initially
enacted, §666 prohibited both bribes and gratuities. Ante,
at 4. Similarly significant (though unmentioned by the ma-
jority), Congress imposed the same 10-year maximum term
of imprisonment for a violation then as it does now. See
§666(b) (1982 ed., Supp. II); cf. ante, at 14 (describing it as
“unfathomable that Congress would authorize a 10-year
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 9
criminal sentence for gifts to 19 million state and local offi-

cials” without federal guidance).
Starting with this historical disadvantage regarding the
scope of the statute, the majority must show that Congress
made major changes to §666 that might account for the
sans-gratuity interpretation the majority adopts today.
But several features of the statutory and legislative history
convince me of the opposite.
For one, Congress said that it was not making major
changes to the statute. The 1986 revisions to §666 were
part of a package of changes that Congress specifically
deemed “technical and minor.” H. R. Rep. No. 99–797, p. 16
(1986); see also Criminal Law and Procedure Technical
Amendments Act of 1986, 100 Stat. 3592. And the revisions
themselves are largely in keeping with this characteriza-
tion. Relevant here, Congress teased out a “corruptly” mens
rea requirement and swapped the previous “for or because
of ” language for the current “intending to be influenced or
rewarded” phrasing. Id., at 3613. None of this, on its face,
evinces clear congressional intent to extract an entire cate-
gory of previously covered illicit payments from §666.
Undeterred, the majority says that when Congress
amended §666, it was attempting to fashion that provision
after §201(b)—the bribery statute that covers federal offi-
cials. See ante, at 8–9.2 Again, the statutory and legislative
record suggests otherwise: In fact, history establishes that
Congress had a different model statute in mind.
Congress had used a phrase identical to §666’s “intending
to be influenced or rewarded” language just a few months
before when it amended 18 U. S. C. §215, an anticorruption
statute that applies to bank employees. See 100 Stat. 779.
——————
2 Section 201(b)(2)(A) imposes federal criminal penalties on “[w]hoever
. . . being a public official . . . corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts,

or agrees to receive or accept anything of value . . . in return for . . . being
influenced in the performance of any official act.”
That provision imposes criminal penalties on any bank em-

ployee who “corruptly solicits or demands . . . or corruptly
accepts or agrees to accept, anything of value from any per-
son, intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection
with any business or transaction.” Ibid. (emphasis added);
see also §215(a)(2). And this similarity was no coincidence.
The House Report the majority quotes as explicating §666
confirms that §666 was meant to track §215—not §201(b),
as the majority claims. See H. R. Rep. No. 99–797, at 30,
n. 9.
This means, of course, that if §215 criminalizes gratui-
ties, it is likely §666 does as well. But the majority labels
§215 “a null data point,” evidently because this Court has
never interpreted that statute. Ante, at 9, n. 4. Section
215’s relevance to §666 does not come from any interpreta-
tion, however—it is plain on the face of that statute, which
uses the exact same “influenced or rewarded” phrase. And
the history of that model provision indicates that Congress
meant for §215 to reach gratuities, too. For example, a
House Report directly speaks of §215 as a statute criminal-
izing gratuities: It says that, before 1986, §215 made “it
criminal for a bank official to accept any gratuity, no matter
how trivial, after that official ha[d] taken official action on
bank business.” H. R. Rep. No. 99–335, p. 6, n. 25 (1985)
(emphasis added). Congress amended §215 in 1986 to
“narro[w]” the statute, but not by carving out gratuities al-
together. Ibid. Rather it narrowed the “law by requiring
that the acceptance of the gratuity be done corruptly.” Ibid.
(emphasis added).3 Astute readers will recall that Congress
made exactly this same narrowing edit to §666. See supra,
——————
3 Piling on, I note that the 1986 amendments to §215 also required fed-
eral agencies with responsibility for regulating a financial institution to

“establish . . . guidelines” to help bank employees comply with the stat-
ute. See 18 U. S. C. §215(d) (1982 ed., Supp. IV). When those agencies
followed through, they too expressly assumed that §215 covered gratui-
ties. See, e.g., 52 Fed. Reg. 46046 (1987); id., at 43940.
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 11
at 9.
In short, Congress tailored §215 in an effort to stem “ ‘cor-
ruption in the bank industry,’ ” and it seemed to think that
both bribes and gratuities contributed to that problem.
H. R. Rep. No. 99–335, at 5. So, too, with §666 and public
corruption.
III
To recap what we know thus far: The question in this case
is whether §666 criminalizes gratuities in addition to
bribes. The text and purpose of §666 alone provide an easy
answer. The word “rewarded” means to have been given a
reward for some action taken. So gratuities are plainly cov-
ered. To be sure, if the Court had given that straightfor-
ward answer, we might eventually have confronted a fol-
lowup question: Are all gratuities covered? Said
differently: Even if gratuities generally are criminalized by
§666, are there circumstances in which certain gratuities
are not criminalized?
The case in front of us does not require us to reach that
question. We have not been asked to settle, once and for
all, which gratuities are corrupt and which are quotidian.
Snyder did not argue that his $13,000 check was part of
some subset of noncriminalized gratuities. Rather (and this
is important to note), Snyder has taken an all-or-nothing
approach to the argument he makes in this case. He insists
that all gratuities—every type in the entire class—are ex-
cluded from §666. Because the statute’s plain text says oth-
erwise, that should have been the end of this case, even if a
future petitioner might have asked us to do a more nuanced
analysis.
But, no matter—the majority today skips ahead, com-
plaining that the Government has “not identif[ied] any re-
motely clear lines separating an innocuous or obviously be-
nign gratuity from a criminal gratuity.” Ante, at 12. This
omission is a huge problem, the majority says, because
without those lines, “19 million state and local officials”

could be imprisoned “for accepting even commonplace gra-
tuities.” Ante, at 1.
The majority’s fretting falls flat, especially in the context
of this case. There is no question that state, local, and tribal
officials deserve “clear lines,” but we were not asked to pro-
vide all of them at this moment.4 And, perhaps even more
important, nothing about the facts of this case even re-
motely implicates a reasonable concern about the criminal-
ization of innocuous conduct on the part of an unwary offi-
cial. Furthermore, most of the clear lines the majority
seeks already exist—they come from the text of the statute.
Limits within the text of §666 provide “fair notice” that com-
monplace gratuities are typically not within the statute’s
reach, contra, ante, at 11, and they suffice to prevent pros-
ecution of the gift cards, burrito bowls, and steak dinners
that derail today’s decision.5
A
If one simply accepts what the statute says it covers—
local officials who corruptly solicit, accept, or agree to accept
rewards in connection with official business worth over a
certain amount—Snyder’s case is an easy one. Perhaps
that is why the majority spends so little time describing it.
Snyder took office as mayor of the city of Portage, Indi-
ana, in January 2012. As mayor, Snyder and his appointees
——————
4 Given the question presented, the majority’s demand for a compre-
hensive interpretation of §666, for all purposes, is both striking and in-
consistent with our usual incremental approach. See St. Amant v.
Thompson, 390 U. S. 727, 730–731 (1968) (observing that the “outer lim-
its” of “many legal standards”—whether they be “provided by the Consti-
tution, statutes, or case law”—are “marked out through case-by-case ad-
judication”).
5 Notably, I am not the only Justice who has viewed §666 in this way.
See Sorich v. United States, 555 U. S. 1204, 1207 (2009) (Scalia, J., dis-
senting from denial of certiorari) (describing §666(a) as providing a “clear
rul[e]” prohibiting “bribes and gratuities to public officials”).
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 13
sat on the Portage Board of Works and Public Safety, the

entity that managed public bidding on city contracts.
Snyder put one of his friends, Randy Reeder, in charge of
the bidding process, despite Reeder’s lack of experience in
administering public bids. Evidence presented at Snyder’s
trial showed that Reeder tailored bid specifications for two
different city contracts to favor Great Lakes Peterbilt, a
truck dealership owned by brothers Robert Buha and Ste-
phen Buha. Evidence also showed that during the bidding
process, Snyder was in contact with the Buha brothers, but
no other bidders.
Snyder had campaigned on a platform that included au-
tomating trash collection, and by December 2012, the city
was looking to buy three garbage trucks. It issued an invi-
tation to bid on the contract, listing specific requirements
for the trucks. Reeder testified that he crafted some speci-
fications, including delivery within 150 days, knowing they
would favor Great Lakes Peterbilt. The board of works
voted to award Great Lakes Peterbilt the contract. Evi-
dence at trial showed that the city could have saved about
$60,000 had it not prioritized expedited delivery.
In January 2013, the manager of Great Lakes Peterbilt
asked Reeder whether the city might want to buy another
truck—an unused, 2012 model that had been sitting outside
on the dealership’s lot over two winters. Snyder first tried
to buy the truck outright, but Portage’s city attorney in-
formed him he had to go through the public bidding process.
So the board of works issued another invitation to bid in
November 2013. This invitation sought two more garbage
trucks. Reeder again tweaked certain specifications to fa-
vor Great Lakes Peterbilt—this time to help it move the
older truck sitting on its lot. The board of works voted to
award Great Lakes Peterbilt this contract too. Together,
the two contracts that Great Lakes Peterbilt “won” totaled
some $1.125 million.
Shortly after the second contract was awarded, Snyder
paid the Buha brothers a visit at their dealership. “I need

money,” he said. App. 72. He asked for $15,000; the deal-
ership gave him $13,000. When federal investigators heard
about the payment and came calling, Snyder told them the
check was for information technology and health insurance
consulting services that he had provided to the dealership.
He gave different explanations for the money to Reeder and
a different city employee.
Employees at Great Lakes Peterbilt testified that Snyder
never performed any consulting work for the dealership.
And during the federal investigation, no written agree-
ments, work product, evidence of meetings, invoices, or
other documentation was ever produced relating to any con-
sulting work performed by Snyder. All of this confirmed
testimony from the dealership’s controller, who had cut the
check to Snyder: Snyder had instead been paid for an “ ‘in-
side track. ’ ” App. to Pet. for Cert. 60a–61a.
A federal grand jury charged Snyder with violating 18
U. S. C. §666(a)(1)(B). App. 2–3. The indictment alleged
that Snyder “did corruptly solicit, demand, accept, and
agree to accept a bank check in the amount of $13,000, in-
tending to be influenced and rewarded.” Id., at 3. A jury
found him guilty of violating §666 in connection with the
garbage truck contracts. It is not difficult to see why the
jury reached that conclusion, having been instructed that
the Government needed to prove that Snyder “acted cor-
ruptly, with the intent to be influenced or rewarded.” Id.,
at 27.6
——————
6 Even after its decision to construe §666 as a bribery-only statute, the
Court’s decision to reverse Snyder’s conviction, rather than vacate and

remand, is perplexing. The District Court specifically found that, “even
if ” §666 were construed to penalize bribes alone, “there was ample evi-
dence permitting a rational jury to find, from the circumstantial evi-
dence, that there was an up-front agreement to reward Snyder for mak-
ing sure [Great Lakes Peterbilt] won the contract award(s).” App. to Pet.
for Cert. 63a. Thus, the Seventh Circuit should have been permitted to
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 15
B
One thing is clear from the Court’s opinion in this case—
the majority isn’t much worried about what happens to
Snyder under §666. It pivots to the other 18,999,999 state,
local, and tribal officials at work throughout the country
and laments that there are “no clear federal rules” for them.
Ante, at 12. But §666 was not designed to apply to teachers
accepting fruit baskets, soccer coaches getting gift cards, or
newspaper delivery guys who get a tip at Christmas. See
ibid. (reciting similar examples). We know this because,
beyond requiring acceptance of a reward, §666 weaves to-
gether multiple other elements (that the Government must
prove beyond a reasonable doubt), which collectively do the
nuanced work of sifting illegal gratuities from inoffensive
ones.
Those limits are clear on the face of the statute; when
construed as a whole, the text of §666 provides more than
adequate notice to those this statute covers. Now, for a list
of my own: First, §666 applies only when a state, local,
tribal, or private entity “receives, in any one year period,
benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program in-
volving” some “form of Federal assistance.” §666(b). Sec-
ond, the statute requires that the criminalized payment be
“in connection with any business, transaction, or series of
transactions” of the covered entity. §§666(a)(1)(B), (a)(2).
Third, that “business, transaction, or series of transactions”
must involve “[some]thing of value of $5,000 or more.” Ibid.
Fourth, §666 expressly “does not apply to bona fide salary,
wages, fees, or other compensation paid . . . in the usual
course of business.” §666(c). Nor does it apply to “expenses
paid or reimbursed . . . in the usual course of business.”
——————
assess in the first instance whether any instructional error was prejudi-
cial. Under our current precedent, Snyder is not entitled to automatic
relief due to a mere instructional error. See, e.g., Greer v. United States,
593 U. S. 503, 507, 513 (2021).
Ibid. Last, and perhaps most important, the statute specif-

ically requires that the official who solicits, accepts, or
agrees to accept the payment do so “corruptly” (the mens
rea). §666(a)(1)(B). This series of carefully delineated cir-
cumstances—all of which appear in the text of §666—
means that payments or gifts to officials will not always be
captured by §666 under any and all circumstances, but only
if the violator acts in the ways described and with the re-
quired intent.
Notably, the majority takes the last statutory check I de-
scribe—the “corruptly” mens rea requirement—and trans-
forms it into a reason to read the statute to cover only
bribes. See ante, at 7–8, 15. The majority maintains that
“corruptly” signals that §666 is a bribery statute because
§201(b), the federal-official bribery statute, uses that term.
Ibid. But, as I have already explained, the bribery statute
for federal officials is not the blueprint the majority makes
it out to be. See Part II–B, supra. And while the majority
suggests that “corruptly” just means quid pro quo, see ante,
at 8, it can give no reason why that must be so in this stat-
ute.
Instead, the majority gives a practical justification for its
preferred interpretation. It suggests that if §666 is read
generally to apply to gratuities, and “corruptly” is read as a
narrowing mens rea element, then the statute still might
sweep in all sorts of innocuous gifts. See ante, at 12–13.
Maybe. Maybe not. Again, the precise meaning of the term
“corruptly” is not the question before us today. Nor does it
really matter here because, whatever “corruptly” means,
Snyder’s behavior clearly fits the bill, making this case a
poor one to explore the contours of that term. See Part III–
A, supra.
In any event, any uncertainty we might have about “cor-
ruptly” seems unwarranted considering the Court’s previ-
ous definitions of that word. In Arthur Andersen LLP v.
United States, 544 U. S. 696 (2005), we wrote that the term
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 17
“ ‘corruptly’ ” is “normally associated with wrongful, im-

moral, depraved, or evil” conduct. Id., at 705. We therefore
related the term with “consciousness of wrongdoing.” Id.,
at 706. Applying that standard definition to §666’s mens
rea requirement appears to heave an imposing burden onto
the Government. Prosecutors must prove not only that a
state, local, or tribal official did, in fact, act wrongfully
when accepting the gift or payment, but also that she knew
that accepting the gift or payment was wrongful.7 The ma-
jority worries that it may be unclear to an official whether
accepting a gift is, in fact, “wrongful.” See ante, at 12. But
if “corruptly” is read to require knowledge of wrongfulness,
any lack of clarity benefits the official. In such circum-
stances, a prosecutor is almost certain to be unable to meet
her burden of proof—as the Government acknowledges.
See, e.g., Tr. of Oral Arg. 59–60, 107.8
The bottom line is that §666 is not unique or special. Like
other criminal statutes—and especially other anti-public-
corruption statutes—§666 has various elements, some of
which may benefit from further clarification. Down the
road, this Court could have had that opportunity with re-
spect to §666 if it had chosen to engage in our usual method
of parsing statutes. See, e.g., Fischer v. United States, 529
U. S. 667, 677, 681 (2000) (clarifying the meaning of federal
“benefits” under §666); Sun-Diamond, 526 U. S., at 414
(holding that to establish a violation of §201(c), “the Gov-
ernment must prove a link between a thing of value con-
ferred upon a public official and a specific ‘official act’ for or
——————
7 At oral argument, the Government acknowledged that “consciousness
of wrongdoing” roughly translates to knowledge of unlawfulness. Tr. of

Oral Arg. 74–76.
8 Thus, defining “corruptly” in the same way we have in the past would
not rely on a prosecutor’s discretion to limit the scope of the statute. See
ante, at 13; cf. Marinello v. United States, 584 U. S. 1, 11 (2018). Indeed,
though the Government could attempt to launch unwarranted prosecu-
tions under §666, that is as true for §666 as it is for any other federal
criminal statute.
because of which it was given” (emphasis added)); McDon-

nell v. United States, 579 U. S. 550, 571–572 (2016) (clari-
fying the “official act” requirement in §201(a)(3)). Instead,
the majority washes its hands of this anticorruption provi-
sion, announcing that certain wrongful conduct the statute
plainly covers just cannot be included. The majority throws
in the towel too soon.
C
As I said earlier, §666 already provides meaningful
guardrails that protect against the “overbreadth” that the
majority decries. Ante, at 12. But you don’t have to take
my word for that. Other prosecutions of gratuities that the
Government has brought under §666—successfully or un-
successfully—do not remotely resemble the holiday tips,
gift baskets, and sweatshirts around which the majority
crafts its decision.9 That is, even as the Government has
consistently maintained that §666 covers gratuities, its ac-
tual prior prosecutions under §666 were not the dragnet for
public school teachers, soccer coaches, or trash collectors
that the majority conjures. Rather, the real cases in which
the Government has invoked this law involve exactly the
——————
9 See, e.g., Scarantino v. Public School Employees’ Retirement Bd., 68
A. 3d 375, 376–377 (Pa. Commw. 2013) (describing a defendant prose-

cuted under §666 for receiving a $5,000 cash gratuity in connection with
school district contracts); United States v. Musto, 2012 WL 5879609, *2,
n. 2 (MD Pa., Nov. 21, 2012) (defendant prosecuted under §666 for ac-
cepting $1,000 in connection with a municipality’s multimillion dollar
loan application to a state agency and prior official advocacy); United
States v. Bahel, 662 F. 3d 610, 620–621, 638 (CA2 2011) (defendant pros-
ecuted under §666 after receiving financial benefits including years of
near-monthly cash payments of thousands of dollars, a laptop, first-class
plane tickets to India, seats to the U. S. Open tennis tournament, a re-
duced-rent apartment, and the eventual purchase of that apartment for
below-market value in connection with United Nations contracts);
United States v. Zimmermann, 509 F. 3d 920, 926–927 (CA8 2007) (de-
fendant prosecuted for accepting gratuities of $5,000, $1,200, and $1,000
in connection with real-estate development projects).
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 19
type of palm greasing that the statute plainly covers and

that one might reasonably expect Congress to care about
when targeting graft in state, local, and tribal governments.
After today, however, the ability of the Federal Government
to prosecute such obviously wrongful conduct is left in
doubt.
It is also noteworthy that the prosecutions that Snyder
describes as proof of the Government’s “not reassuring”
track record, Reply Brief 18–19, look nothing like the acts
of gratitude that worry the majority. The “city building in-
spector [who] solicit[ed] donations for his favorite youth
sports league”? Id., at 18. Well, he admitted to receiving
illegal gratuities from an engineer who worked with clients
seeking building permits in San Francisco. The engineer
knew that the inspector was a volunteer coach and sup-
porter of “a San Francisco non-profit adult and youth ath-
letic organization,” and the engineer arranged for his cli-
ents to donate to that organization in connection with
inspections of their properties. Press Release, U. S. Attor-
ney’s Office, ND Cal., San Francisco Senior Building In-
spector Pleads Guilty to Accepting Illegal Gratuities (Dec.
9, 2022). “[I]n several instances, the engineer advised [the
inspector] of a client’s donation while asking for a final per-
mit or inspection on the client’s property.” Ibid. That same
inspector also accepted $30,000 in debt forgiveness from a
longtime San Francisco real-estate developer and friend.
Ibid.
And the “county contractor [who] donat[ed] $2,000 for
plaques and food at a luncheon honoring female judges”?
Reply Brief 18. He was the owner of a debt collection com-
pany that had a nonexclusive contract with Cook County,
Illinois, to perform debt collection work. A significant part
of the contract was the chance to collect fines owed on un-
paid traffic tickets. An official in the Circuit Court of Cook
County Clerk’s Office—the entity responsible for doling out
the traffic debt work—gave his firm half of those collections.
The owner then underwrote nearly $2,000 in expenses for

the court’s Women’s History Month Celebration. Why did
he cover these expenses? “We gotta stay ahead of [the com-
petition],” the owner told his staff. United States v.
Donagher, No. 1:19–cr–00240 (ND Ill.), ECF Doc. 98, pp. 2–
5.10
None of this means that courts should trust the Govern-
ment when it says that it does and will continue to enforce
a statute with care. That is not how we do statutory inter-
pretation, and for good reason. See Marinello v. United
States, 584 U. S. 1, 11 (2018). But what these examples do
show is that §666’s built-in bulwarks seem to be working.
Thus, there is simply no reason to think that decades after
——————
10 Snyder’s invocation of United States v. Hamilton, 46 F. 4th 389 (CA5
2022), is neither persuasive nor relevant here. Snyder says Hamilton

shows that the Government “has prosecuted campaign contributions.”
Reply Brief 19. The defendant in Hamilton was a Dallas real-estate de-
veloper who “supported” local politicians. 46 F. 4th, at 391. He gave
money to a nonprofit owned and operated by the campaign manager of
one such politician, a Dallas City Council member. “Some of those dona-
tions were used for [the nonprofit’s] legitimate purposes; others were
purportedly given to [the nonprofit], cashed by [the campaign manager],
then given to [the politician] personally.” Ibid. Around an election cycle,
“[the developer] was trying to secure some low-income-housing tax cred-
its for one of his real-estate ventures, the Royal Crest project,” and that
City Council member “lobbied to have the Royal Crest project included.”
Ibid. “A few years later, [the developer] needed to get a paid-sick-leave
ordinance on the ballot in the upcoming election.” Ibid. So he wrote a
$7,000 check to a different member of the Dallas City Council, who made
clear that the check “was not a loan” and “had nothing to do with the
campaign.” Id., at 392. A jury convicted the developer on two §666
counts, but the Fifth Circuit later vacated the convictions because, in its
view, §666 did not criminalize gratuities. Id., at 393, 399.
On these facts, it is far from clear that Hamilton involved legitimate
campaign contributions. But it is abundantly clear that Snyder’s case
does not. If a §666 conviction involving real campaign contributions had
reached us, it might have been appropriate to read a quid pro quo re-
quirement into the statute for that particular context. See McCormick
v. United States, 500 U. S. 257, 273–274 (1991).
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 21
the courts of appeals first interpreted §666 to cover gratui-

ties, reading the statute to do so now will “suddenly subject
19 million state and local officials to a new and different
regulatory regime.” Ante, at 11.
IV
Ultimately, it appears that the real bone the majority has
to pick with §666 is its concern about overregulation—a
concern born of the relationship between federal and state
governance. The majority’s pages of citations to state and
local gratuities laws, ante, at 2–3, thus belie its ranking so-
called “federalism” interests merely “[f]ifth” on its list of
reasons for construing §666 as a bribery-only statute, ante,
at 10 (emphasis deleted). More than anything, it seems
that the majority itself harbors the belief it repeatedly as-
cribes to Congress: that regulation of gratuities is better left
to state, local, and tribal governments, rather than the Fed-
eral Government. See, e.g., ante, at 11, 16. (No word on
why the same could not be said for bribes.)
If Congress shared those policy concerns, however, it
chose not to act upon them in this statute. Instead, Con-
gress reached out to regulate state, local, and tribal entities
as well as other organizations that receive federal funds,
despite the fact that those governments do have their own
ethics regulations, as the majority is quick to point out.
And, of course, if the majority is correct about Congress’s
commitment to federalism principles in this area, one won-
ders why Congress didn’t just leave state, local, and tribal
entities alone.
Quite to the contrary, Congress chose to enact §666 “to
ensure the integrity of organizations participating in fed-
eral assistance programs.” Fischer, 529 U. S., at 678. And
that choice was intentional—Congress acted to “addres[s] a
legitimate federal concern by licensing federal prosecution
in an area historically of state concern.” Sabri, 541 U. S.,
at 608, n. Snyder apparently objects to this policy choice,
and further complained below that “Congress ha[d] yet to

take up” any invitation “to consider rewriting the provi-
sion.” App. 15. Fortunately for him, today’s decision by this
Court accomplishes exactly that result.
* * *
State, local, and tribal governments have an important
role to play in combating public corruption, and, of course,
their regulations should reflect the values of the communi-
ties they serve. I wholeheartedly agree with the majority’s
suggestion that, because employees of those governments
are our neighbors, friends, and hometown heroes, federal
law ought not be read to subject them to prosecution when
grateful members of the community show their thanks. See
ante, at 1.
But nothing about the facts of this case implicates any of
that kind of conduct. And the text of §666 clearly covers the
kind of corrupt (albeit perhaps non-quid pro quo) payment
Snyder solicited after steering the city contracts to the deal-
ership. Because reading §666 to prohibit gratuities—just
as it always has—poses no genuine threat to common gift
giving, but does honor Congress’s intent to punish rewards
corruptly accepted by government officials in ways that are
functionally indistinguishable from taking a bribe, I re-
spectfully dissent.

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(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2023 1

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

SNYDER v. UNITED STATES

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

No. 23–108. Argued April 15, 2024—Decided June 26, 2024

That crime carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence. §666(a).

crimes receive different punishments that “reflect their relative

KAVANAUGH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

JAMES E. SNYDER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES

JUSTICE KAVANAUGH delivered the opinion of the Court.

Opinion of the Court

Opinion of the Court

like certain speaking engagements. E.g., Ark. Code Ann.

Opinion of the Court

contains comprehensive prohibitions on bribes and

Opinion of the Court

1986, Congress amended §666 and thereby avoided the

Opinion of the Court

Opinion of the Court

“Whoever . . . being an agent of an organization, or of a State, local, or

“Whoever . . . being a public official or person selected to be a public

Opinion of the Court

gratuities provision for federal officials, which contains no

“Whoever otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge

Opinion of the Court

on §201(c), the gratuities statute. It therefore would be

employees of financial institutions from “corruptly” soliciting or

Opinion of the Court

If the Government were correct that §666 also covered

Opinion of the Court

Those differing approaches reflect nuanced state and local

Opinion of the Court

The Government had to choose between two options for

Opinion of the Court

probation officers, human resource directors, police officers,

Opinion of the Court

the extensive federal gratuities guidance given to federal

Opinion of the Court

gratuities. That argument is misconceived.

Opinion of the Court

commonly writes federal statutes, including bribery

GORSUCH, J., concurring

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

JAMES E. SNYDER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES

JUSTICE GORSUCH, concurring.

GORSUCH, J., concurring

instances, we do much the same when we speak of the “re-

JACKSON, J., dissenting

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

JAMES E. SNYDER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES

JUSTICE JACKSON, with whom JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR and

JACKSON, J., dissenting

only today’s Court could love. Ignoring the plain text of

JACKSON, J., dissenting

JACKSON, J., dissenting

for a payment to constitute a bribe, there must be an up-