Noah Feldman, Columnist

Bribery Tangles With Politics at the Supreme Court

Is it OK to give the governor a Rolex? The justices have reasons to think so.

May 6, 2016 at 1:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Politics as usual.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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Spend a million of your super-PAC dollars to elect a governor, and you can expect him to take your calls and set up meetings with state officials. Courtesy of the Supreme Court and its 2010 Citizens United decision, it’s all protected by the First Amendment.

But give the same governor a Rolex before asking for the meetings -- and both of you might be convicted of bribery.