official-act
19 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-757 | Matthew Borges v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2025-12-29 | Pending | Response RequestedResponse Waived | bribery campaign-finance first-amendment official-act political-contribution quid-pro-quo | The First Amendment protects soliciting for, and contributing to, political campaigns based on policies that a candidate agrees to take while in offic… |
| 25-528 | David Paitsel v. United States | District of Columbia | 2025-10-31 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | bribery circuit-court due-process judicial-precedent official-act prosecutorial-standards | In McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550 (2016), this Court set very clear prosecutorial and judicial standards in criminal proceedings involving b… |
| 25-306 | Thomas F. Spellissy v. United States | Eleventh Circuit | 2025-09-16 | Denied | Response Waived | bribery conspiracy government-position honest-services-fraud official-act private-contractor | Whether a private contractor who holds no formal government position and lacks inherent governmental responsibility, can be convicted of conspiracy to… |
| 25-49 | Alexander Sittenfeld aka P. G. Sittenfeld v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2025-07-15 | Pending | Amici (12)Relisted (5) | bribery campaign-finance first-amendment official-act political-contribution quid-pro-quo | The First Amendment protects soliciting and contributing funds to support a political candidate based on his or her intended policies. To avoid chilli… |
| 25A42 | Edward Mangano v. United States | Second Circuit | 2025-07-10 | Presumed Complete | agency-relationship criminal-liability fiduciary-duty honest-services-fraud official-act public-official | Question not identified. | |
| 24-7376 | Yu Hin Chan v. Honorable Joy F. Campanelli, et al. | Second Circuit | 2025-06-06 | Denied | IFP | court-documents due-process ex-parte-communication immunity legal-ethics official-act | 1. Is Joy I . Campanelli 's behavior of forging Court documents an official act? 2. Is Joy F. Campanelli 's repeated ex parte communication with Peti… |
| 24-6671 | Isaac Doyle Koch v. Iowa | Iowa | 2025-02-27 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | criminal-procedure due-process law-enforcement official-act resistance statutory-interpretation | What is the difference between interfering with an official act and refusing an official crime? What is the effect, when statute disallows all physic… |
| 24-5480 | Robert James McCabe v. United States | Fourth Circuit | 2024-09-06 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | bribery-statute campaign-contributions corrupt-intent nexus-requirement official-act statutory-interpretation | Whether the federal bribery statute, 18 U.S.C. § 201(b), through its use of the term "in return for" requires some nexus or correlation between the un… |
| 23-7754 | Alejandro Carrasco v. United States | First Circuit | 2024-06-18 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP | bribery circuit-split federal-bribery government-agent official-act public-corruption quid-pro-quo statutory-interpretation | I. Does an external consultant retained by a state or local government qualify as a government "agent" subject to prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 666 wh… |
| 23A908 | Alejandro Carrasco v. United States | First Circuit | 2024-04-10 | Presumed Complete | anti-corruption-law federal-bribery municipal-contract official-act public-official statutory-interpretation | 1) Whether a legal services contract between a private-practice attorney and a municipality automatically transform the private practitioner into a go… | |
| 23-845 | Timothy Ray Vasquez v. United States | Fifth Circuit | 2024-02-06 | Denied | Response Waived | bribery criminal-procedure due-process honest-services-fraud official-act public-official quid-pro-quo quid-pro-quo-bribery statutory-interpretation | Does quid pro quo bribery, in the context of an honest services fraud prosecution, permit conviction on the basis that a public official received a be… |
| 20-1131 | James C. Dimora v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2021-02-17 | Denied | Response Waived | bribery conviction criminal-conviction due-process jury-instruction jury-instructions lawful-conduct legal-error official-act statutory-interpretation | Whether a McDonnell error—i.e., defining the element of "official act" overbroadly in bribery counts and thereby enabling a jury to wrongly conclude t… |
| 20-5131 | Michael Kimbrew v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2020-07-23 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | bribery-of-public-official bribery-statute commercial-bribery due-process federal-employee ninth-circuit-interpretation official-act public-official quid-pro-quo statutory-interpretation sun-diamond | Is Kimbrew's expansive reading of § 201 unconstitutional? |
| 19-1145 | Ng Lap Seng v. United States | Second Circuit | 2020-03-18 | Denied | bribery bribery-of-foreign-officials criminal-prosecution foreign-corrupt-practices-act international-organizations mcdonnell-v-united-states official-act quasi-sovereign-public-international-entities statutory-interpretation united-nations | 1. Whether the generic term "organization" in §666 should be construed to include quasi-sovereign public international entities like the United Nation… | |
| 19-1000 | Heon-Cheol Chi v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2020-02-10 | Denied | bribery corrupt-intent criminal-intent foreign-bribery intent-to-influence mcdonnell-v-united-states money-laundering official-act public-official statutory-interpretation | 1. Whether "an offense against a foreign nation involving . . . bribery of a public official" under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7)(B) requires generic bribery… | |
| 19-594 | Mahmoud Thiam v. United States | Second Circuit | 2019-11-06 | Denied | Response Waived | american-constitutional-limitations american-court constitutional-limitations criminal-procedure criminal-prosecution due-process foreign-statute official-act predicate-offense predicate-prosecution vagueness-doctrine | 1. Where a foreign statute is used as a predicate to prosecution in a United States court, including but not limited to the vagueness doctrine, are th… |
| 19-6076 | Tamela M. Lee v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2019-09-26 | Denied | IFP | constituent-contacts constitutional-limits criminal-conviction federal-officials government-contact hobbs-act honest-services mcdonnell-v-united-states municipal-officials official-act | After McDonnell v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2355, 2372 (2016), can a county official constitutionally be convicted of Honest Services and Hobbs Act v… |
| 19-5464 | Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr. v. United States | Third Circuit | 2019-08-05 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | effective-assistance-of-counsel honest-services-mail-fraud ineffective-assistance jury-instructions mail-fraud mcdonnell-v-united-states official-act procedural-default statute-of-limitations | I. Whether Petitioner was denied effective assistance of counsel as a result of the deprivation of a viable statute of limitations defense with respec… |
| 18-8935 | Scott B. Miserendino, Sr. v. United States | Fourth Circuit | 2019-04-23 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | administrative-law bribery-conviction buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability civil-procedure civil-rights due-process federal-jurisdiction mcdonnell-v-united-states official-act question-not-identified section-2255-petition standing takings | Does the Fourth Circuit's Local Rule 34(b) and Preliminary Briefing Order, which require COA applicants to file a brief that will become the merits-br… |