Open AccessJournal Article
Understanding the Spirit of the Constitution on Corruption: Emoluments, Impeachment, and the Primacy of Political Virtue
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The history of political corruption at common law can be traced back to the early 1800s, when the United States House of Representatives passed the first version of the Emoluments Clauses as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 I. LEGAL HISTORY OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769 A. Corruption: A Classical View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770 B. Political Corruption at Common Law: From Gifts to Bribery to Impeachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771 C. The Framers: Influence of the Classical & Common Law Views . . . . 773 II. THE FRAMERS’ FRAMEWORK: A CORRUPT-FREE EXECUTIVE. . . . . . . . . . . 775 A. The Foreign Emoluments Clause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776 B. The Domestic Emoluments Clause. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777 C. The Impeachment Clause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778 III. INTERPRETING THE FRAMEWORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779 A. The Emoluments Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779 1. Office of Profit or Trust Under the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780 2. Emoluments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782 3. Congressional Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 B. The Impeachment Clause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 1. Bribery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 2. High Crimes & Misdemeanors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 IV. APPLYING THE FRAMEWORK: PRIMACY OF POLITICAL VIRTUE AS ALLEGIANCE TO THE LAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798 A. Political Virtue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798 B. Allegiance to the Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Original Meaning of ‘Emoluments’ in the Constitution
TL;DR: This article explored the meaning of the word "emolument" in the US Constitution and identified four common definitions in founding-era political discourse, including compensation with financial value, received by reason of public employment.
McDonnell v. United States: Defining “Official Action” in Public Corruption Law
TL;DR: McDonnell v. United States as mentioned in this paper defined what constitutes an official action under both the Anti-Bribery statute and the Hobbs Act, and the Court sided with Petitioner McDonnell, holding that a "normal meeting, call, or event" does not constitute an "official action" under both anti-bribery and Hobbs acts.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787
TL;DR: Gathers diary entries, letters, and resolutions by participants in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as discussed by the authors, which is a collection of diary entries and letters written by participants of the 1787 Convention.
Journal ArticleDOI
Criminal Corruption: Why Broad Definitions of Bribery Make Things Worse
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the history of two competing concepts of bribery, the "intent to influence" concept (a concept initially applied only to gifts given to judges) and the "illegal contract" concept, and defend the Supreme Court's refusal to treat campaign contributions as bribes in the absence of an "explicit" quid pro quo.
Journal ArticleDOI
Corruption and Virtue at the Constitutional Convention
TL;DR: This article conducted a content analysis of the notes of the Constitutional Convention and found that the fear of corruption with its classical republican symptoms of dependency, cabal, patronage, unwarranted influence, and bribery did influence the crafting of a number of sections of the Constitution.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Intention of the Framers: A Note on Constitutional Interpretation *
TL;DR: The intention of the framers of the United States Constitution has been extensively analyzed in the literature as mentioned in this paper, but it is hardly ever adequately analyzed in an objective or scientific way. The discussion that follows was written in order, first, to raise some of the questions that I think have to be answered before the phrase about intentions can have fullness of meaning as a tool of constitutional analysis; second, to express certain warnings against a too-confident assumption that "the intention" can actually be known.
Criminal Corruption: Why Broad Definit ions of Bribery Make Thin gs Worse
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the history of two competing concepts of bribery, the "intent to influence" concept (a concept initially applied only to gifts given to judges) and the "illegal contract" concept, and defend the Supreme Court's refusal to treat campaign contributions as bribes in the absence of an "explicit" quid pro quo.