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.