John J. Ward v. United States

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

The Justice Department in recent years has devoted substantial resources to prosecuting corrupt public officials. An important weapon in this campaign has been the “intangible rights” doctrine of federal mail and wire fraud (18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343), a doctrine whereby public officials who accept bribes are deemed by doing so to have defrauded the public of its right to the honest provision of public services. Last year, in a stunning setback for the Department, the Supreme Court rejected the intangible-rights doctrine. McNally v. United States, — U.S.-, 107 S.Ct. 2875,…