Publication Detail: The Honest Services Statute: When Federal Righteousness Goes Off The Rails

Publication Detail: The Honest Services Statute: When Federal Righteousness Goes Off The Rails: The Supreme Court has granted review in a second honest services fraud case, Weyhrauch v. United States (08-1196). The Court's ruling will resolve a split in the federal circuit courts over whether the honest services law mandates the creation of a federal "common law" which defines the disclosure obligations of state and local government officials. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, following the Seventh and Eleventh Circuits, held in Weyhrauch that disclosure obligations whose breach can be a predicate for honest services violations can be determined by federal common law. The Third and Fifth Circuits, in contrast, have held that courts must look to state or local law, not federal common law, to determine if a breach of a disclosure duty has occurred.?