Deregulating Corruption
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Evolution of Corruption: from "Honest Graft" to Conflicts of Interest
T ONE The Evolution of Corruption: From "Honest Graft" to Conflicts of Interest Supposin' it's a new bridge they're going to build. I get tipped off and I buy as much property as I can that has to be taken for the approaches. I sell at my own price later on and drop some more money in the bank. Wouldn't you? It's just like lookin' ahead in Wall Street or in the coffee or cotton market It's honest graft and I'm lookin' for it every day of the year. George Washington Plunkitt, as quoted in William L. Riordon, Plunkitt ofTammany Hall To understand the evolution of the anticorruption project, it is necessary to begin with some observations about corruption itself. This chapter deals with four basic issues: the subjectivity of the definition of corruption, the increasing gap between expectations of official behavior and actual behav ior, the special politics of scandal and reform, and the difficulty of measur ing corruption. Defining Corruption Corruption is neither a single form of behavior nor an obvious species of conduct. 1 Corruption is the name we apply to some reciprocities by some people in some contexts at some times. The popular use of the term does not require that the conduct labeled corrupt be illegal; it is enough that the la beler thinks it is immoral or unethicaL Since people's views about moral and ethical conduct differ in important respects, corruption is often a contested ~. labeL Indeed, these days public servants are admonished not only to adhere to the skein of laws prohibiting a wide variety of conduct, but to avoid "the appearance of corruption." Such a warning recognizes that the term corrup tion refers to more than just positive law, but fails to recognize that appear ance of corruption is in the eyes of the beholder. -
The Anatomy of Official Corruption
VIII Congreso Internacional del CLAD sobre la Reforma del Estado y de la Administración Pública, Panamá, 28-31 Oct. 2003 The burden on our backs; corruption in Latin America Gerald E. Caiden University of Southern California Corruption has now become a popular subject in international circles. Not that it is new. Far from that, corruption has been with us since the dawn of government. But finally the world has decided that it has become too dysfunctional for global development for it to go unchallenged. Indeed, it has become so menacing that something has to be done about it. But are we taking about the same thing? Despite different words for it, there are common definitions and what is more there seems to be a remarkable degree of agreement in time and place. Ever since written records have survived, the same kinds of objectionable behavior have been identified, irrespective of language, religion, culture, ethnicity, governance, location, philosophy and social values. These have always been considered unworthy of individuals exercising power over others, epitomized in Lord Acton’s dictum that “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” They have disappointed those over whom they have exercised their power. The Essence of Corruption The starting point in determining what constitutes corrupt practice is with the act itself, that specific form of behavior that is considered wrong and offensive. Those behaving in such a way must know that what they were doing was morally wrong, clearly out of line and unacceptable. They knowingly stole. They perjured themselves. They bribed or accepted bribes or passed on bribes or recorded bribes or disguised bribes. -
What Are You Going to Do About It? Ethics and Corruption Issues in The
What Are You Going to Do About It? Ethics and Corruption Issues in the New York State Constitution By Bennett Liebman Government Lawyer in Residence “What Are You Going to Do About It?” Ethics and Corruption Issues in the New York State Constitution By Bennett Liebman Government Lawyer in Residence Government Law Center Albany Law School Edited by Andrew Ayers and Michele Monforte April 2017 Cover image: “The Prevailing Candidate, or the Election carried by Bribery and the Devil,” attributed to William Hogarth, circa 1722. It depicts a candidate for office (with a devil hovering above him) slipping a purse into a voter’s pocket, while the voter’s wife, standing in the doorway, listens to a clergyman who assures her that bribery is no sin. Two boys point to the transaction, condemning it. Image courtesy of the N.Y. Public Library. Explanation of the image is drawn from the Yale Library; see http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId= lwlpr22449. CONTENTS I. Introduction ....................................................................... 3 II. Ethics Provisions in the State Constitution ........ 5 A. Extant Ethics Provisions in the Constitution .............. 5 B. Banking and Ethics ....................................................... 6 C. The Canal System and Ethics ..................................... 11 D. Bribery and Ethics....................................................... 15 E. Free Passes, Rebates, and Ethics ............................... 23 III. Restrictions on the Authority of the State Legislature -
John J. Marchi Papers
John J. Marchi Papers PM-1 Volume: 65 linear feet • Biographical Note • Chronology • Scope and Content • Series Descriptions • Box & Folder List Biographical Note John J. Marchi, the son of Louis and Alina Marchi, was born on May 20, 1921, in Staten Island, New York. He graduated from Manhattan College with first honors in 1942, later receiving a Juris Doctor from St. John’s University School of Law and Doctor of Judicial Science from Brooklyn Law School in 1953. He engaged in the general practice of law with offices on Staten Island and has lectured extensively to Italian jurists at the request of the State Department. Marchi served in the Coast Guard and Navy during World War II and was on combat duty in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres of war. Marchi also served as a Commander in the Active Reserve after the war, retiring from the service in 1982. John J. Marchi was first elected to the New York State Senate in the 1956 General Election. As a Senator, he quickly rose to influential Senate positions through the chairmanship of many standing and joint committees, including Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on the City of New York. In 1966, he was elected as a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention and chaired the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Issues. That same year, Senator Marchi was named Chairman of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Interstate Cooperation, the oldest joint legislative committee in the Legislature. Other senior state government leadership positions followed, and this focus on state government relations and the City of New York permeated Senator Marchi’s career for the next few decades. -
A Tribute to the Fordham Judiciary: a Century of Service
Fordham Law Review Volume 75 Issue 5 Article 1 2007 A Tribute to the Fordham Judiciary: A Century of Service Constantine N. Katsoris Fordham University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Constantine N. Katsoris, A Tribute to the Fordham Judiciary: A Century of Service, 75 Fordham L. Rev. 2303 (2007). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol75/iss5/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Tribute to the Fordham Judiciary: A Century of Service Cover Page Footnote * This article is dedicated to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed ot the U.S. Supreme Court. Although she is not a graduate of our school, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Fordham University in 1984 at the dedication ceremony celebrating the expansion of the Law School at Lincoln Center. Besides being a role model both on and off the bench, she has graciously participated and contributed to Fordham Law School in so many ways over the past three decades, including being the principal speaker at both the dedication of our new building in 1984, and again at our Millennium Celebration at Lincoln Center as we ushered in the twenty-first century, teaching a course in International Law and Relations as part of our summer program in Ireland, and participating in each of our annual alumni Supreme Court Admission Ceremonies since they began in 1986. -
Robert F. Pecorella
1 The Two New Yorks Revisited: The City and The State Robert F. Pecorella On February 3, 1997, five members of the New York State Assembly from upstate districts introduced a concurrent resolution petitioning Congress to allow the division of New York into two states. The proponents defended the resolution in the following terms: “Due to the extreme diversity of New York State, it has become almost ungovernable. It is extremely difficult to write good law which is fair to all concerned when you have areas a diverse as Manhattan and Jefferson County, for instance.”1 This was certainly not the first proposal for geographical division of New York State, and it is unlikely that it will be the last. Regardless of whether the idea emanates from upstate or from New York City, it stands as a sym- bolic gesture of intense political frustration. People from New York City and people from other areas of the state and their political representatives often view each other with emotions ranging from bemusement to hostility. “Rural folk and city dwellers in many countries and over many centuries have viewed each other with fear and suspicion. [T]he sharp differences—racial, reli- gious, cultural, political—between New York City and upstate have aggra- vated the normal rural-urban cleavages.”2 As creations of modernity, cities challenge traditional culture by incubat- ing liberal social and political attitudes; as the nation’s most international city, New York represents the greatest challenge to the traditions of rural life. “From its earliest times . New York was a place of remarkable ethnic, cultural, and racial differences.”3 The differences between people in New York City and those in the rest of the state are both long-standing and easily summarized: city residents have been and are less Protestant, more ethnically diverse, more likely to be foreign-born, and far more likely to be Democrats than people in the rest of the state. -
The Disappearance of Corruption and the New Path Forward in Campaign Finance
MAZO 1.24.15 - MAZO FINAL VERSION (DO NOT DELETE) 1/25/2015 2:01 AM THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION AND THE NEW PATH FORWARD IN CAMPAIGN FINANCE EUGENE D. MAZO Reformers cloak their plans for changing the campaign finance system in the language of corruption because of the Supreme Court. In Buckley v. Valeo, the 1976 case that put corruption at the center of campaign finance law, the Supreme Court held that the only acceptable justifications that could be used to impose limits on campaign contributions were the government’s interests in preventing “corruption and the appearance of corruption.” All other justifications would result in laws being struck down for violating the freedoms of the First Amendment. This article argues that the Court’s “corruption paradigm” has outlived its usefulness, however. It has been inconsistently applied, and it has led to more confusion than clarity. Because new legislation regulating campaign finance is likely to be struck down by the Court, Congress no longer has the stomach to regulate in this important area of the law. For this reason, the champions of campaign finance need to find a new path forward. One such path, proposed in this article, is to let Congress regulate campaign finance through its internal ethics rules. Copyright © 2014, Eugene D. Mazo. Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Wake Forest University. B.A. Columbia; M.A. Harvard; Ph.D. Oxford; J.D., Stanford. I presented earlier versions of this work at the conference on “The Future of Campaign Finance Reform” at Duke University School of Law on February 7, 2014; at the Election Law Scholars’ Schmooze that took place at the National Convention of the American Constitution Society on June 19, 2014; and at a discussion group I had organized called “The Evolution of Campaign Finance Reform: From Buckley to Citizens United to McCutcheon v. -
Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos, Defenda
Case 1:15-cr-00317-KMW Document 166 Filed 03/23/16 Page 1 of 49 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK United States of America, - v. - S1 15 Cr 317 (KMW) Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos, Defendants. SENTENCING MEMORANDUM FOR DEAN SKELOS G. Robert Gage, Jr. Joseph B. Evans Gage Spencer & Fleming LLP 410 Park Avenue, Suite 900 New York, New York 10022 (212) 768-4900 Attorneys for Dean Skelos Case 1:15-cr-00317-KMW Document 166 Filed 03/23/16 Page 2 of 49 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. i TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ......................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................2 I. Personal Background ...........................................................................................................2 II. Service in the New York State Senate .................................................................................9 A. Legislative Initiatives .............................................................................................10 B. Leadership Qualities ..............................................................................................15 C. Extraordinary Service to -
REGULAR MEETING Morning Session Monday, January 28, 2013 Legislative Chambers, Bath, New York
REGULAR MEETING Morning Session Monday, January 28, 2013 Legislative Chambers, Bath, New York The County Legislature of the County of Steuben convened in Regular Session in the Legislative Chambers, Bath, NY on Monday, the 28th day of January, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. and was called to order by the Chairman of the Legislature, Joseph J. Hauryski. Roll Call and all members present except for Legislators Crossett, Farrand, Ferratella and Swackhamer. Mr. Mullen provided the Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mrs. Lando. Chairman Hauryski asked Michael McCartney to come forward. Mr. McCartney is an employee in the District Attorney’s Office. He presented him with a Certificate of Appreciation and a pin in recognition of his 25 years of service to Steuben County. Chairman Hauryski opened the floor for comments by members of the public. Tim Hargrave, Cameron Mills, stated New York State lied to you. At the December Legislative meeting, Mr. Swackhamer gave a moving speech regarding the sale of the Health Care Facility. During his speech, he stated that New York State had lied, and I believe him. Mr. Hargraves stated that he has 100 signatures from people in our area who are protesting the negative impact that Dickson Corporation has had in their lives. He stated that he and Wayne Wells are the voices of those people. Mr. Hargraves distributed a chart that shows a partial listing of sludge sources that end up in the fields that surround the homes of most of these people. How comfortable would you sleep at night knowing the largest waste disposal corporation could dump waste 50 feet from your property line and 100 feet from your well? If you know the State had lied and was deceitful, you could have avoided the problems with the Health Care Facility. -
The Price of Corruption Usha R
The Price of Corruption Usha R. Rodrigues According to the Supreme Court, politicians can’t be bought for less than $5200, the maximum campaign contribution an individual can give a single legislator. Consequently the Court struck down aggregate contribution limits on the theory that confining individual donations to that base limit provides an adequate safeguard against corruption. But the Court was wrong. Coupling data from actual campaign contributions from the last election cycle with social science research, this Article demonstrates that corruption likely occurs below the base limit threshold. In one case, a CEO made a first-time $1000 donation to a member of Congress. The next day that representative introduced a securities bill tailored to the interests of that CEO’s firm. The fact that the price of corruption is lower than commonly understood has fundamental repercussions for the Court’s current protection of money as speech. M.E. Kilpatrick Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law. I thank participants at workshops Fordham Law School and Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at Wharton. Stephen M. Bainbridge, Kent Barnett, William Baude, Vincent Blasi, Nathan Chapman, Dan T. Coenen, Jill Fisch, Michael Guttentag, Erica Hashimoto, Timothy Meyer, James Nelson, Daniel Ortiz, Lori Ringhand, Peter “Bo” Rutledge, and Yesha Yadav. Mistakes are my own. 45 46 Journal of Law & Politics [Vol.XXXI:45 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 47 I. THE STORY OF SECTION 12(G) 51 A. On the Hill 53 B. Lobbying and Campaign Contributions 56 II. DO THE SECONDMARKET EMPLOYEE DONATIONS QUALIFY AS CORRUPT UNDER MCCUTCHEON? 63 A. -
The Appearance and the Reality of Quid Pro Quo Corruption: an Empirical Investigation
THE APPEARANCE AND THE REALITY OF QUID PRO QUO CORRUPTION: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION Christopher Robertson*, D. Alex Winkelman**, Kelly Bergstrand** and Darren Modzelewski** ABSTRACT The Supreme Court says that campaign finance regulations are unconstitutional unless they target “quid pro quo” corruption or its appearance. To test those appearances, we fielded two studies. First, in a highly realistic simulation, three grand juries deliberated on charges that a campaign spender bribed a Congressperson. Second, 1271 representative online respondents considered whether to convict, with five variables manipulated ran- domly. In both studies, jurors found quid pro quo corruption for behaviors they believed to be common. This research suggests that Supreme Court decisions were wrongly decided, and that Congress and the states have greater authority to regulate campaign finance. Prosecutions for bribery raise serious problems for the First Amendment, due process, and separation of powers. Safe harbors may be a solution. * Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Professor of Law, James E. Rogers College of Law, The University of Arizona, 1201 East Speedway, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA, E-mail: [email protected]. ** The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University provided funding for this research. Kelly Bergstrand is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington. She and the other authors were research associates at University of Arizona, where they recently graduated with advanced degrees. Robertson discloses that he has previously represented criminal defendants in public corruption cases. The authors thank Tom Mauet, Will Pew, Anthony Caldwell, and Robert Farquharson for serving as actors in the grand jury experiment; Kathy Pollard, for cooperation in recruiting participants; and Elizabeth Strange, John Evans, and Karen Wyss, for advising on grand jury procedure. -
August 12, 2004 Governor George Pataki Capitol Albany NY 12224
August 12, 2004 Governor George Pataki Capitol Albany NY 12224 Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno 909 Legislative Office Building Albany, New York 12247 Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver LOB 932 Albany, NY 12248 Re: Javits Center Expansion Legislation Dear Governor Pataki, Senator Bruno and Speaker Silver: For several years, Manhattan Community Board No. 4 has supported and continues to support the expansion of the Javits Convention Center. The Board and the communities of Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen believe that the expansion will create economic development and new jobs by better equipping the Javits Center to attract additional shows and exhibitions. However, it is entirely appropriate to ensure that this expansion, like other major development projects, undergoes a full and complete public review. A healthy respect for the local community and the democratic process demands no less. This project should be subject to the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). This will enable our Board, residents, and businesses in the local community to comment on the project and allow the City Council and the City Planning Commission to vote on it. The elected legislative body of the City of New York should have a vote on such an important city asset. In particular, the closing of 39th Street should undergo the normal process for closing a city street. Major development projects within New York City should be reviewed and approved by the City’s elected officials. The fact that this is a State project on State-owned land is no excuse for shortcutting the local government’s process.