News Release ~ 12/08/2009

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and The Heritage Foundation

Cordially invite you to attend a Hill education event: 

Legislating Chaos: Has Congress Made Playing Hooky a Federal Crime?

Washington, DC (December 8, 2009) -- On Tuesday, December 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two high-profile “honest services” fraud cases, Conrad Black v. United States and Bruce Weyhrauch v. United States. In his often-quoted dissent from denial of certiorari in Sorich v. United States, Justice Scalia wrote: “If the ’honest services’ theory ... is taken seriously and carried to its logical conclusion, presumably the statute also renders criminal a state legislator’s decision to vote for a bill because he expects it will curry favor with a small minority essential to his reelection [and] a mayor’s attempt to use the prestige of his office to obtain a restaurant table without a reservation .... Indeed, it would seemingly cover a salaried employee’s phoning in sick to go to a ball game.”

Please join us for a vigorous discussion of the cases and statute (18 U.S.C. § 1346) that the Supreme Court will be scrutinizing.

  • Timothy P. O’Toole, Miller & Chevalier Counsel for Defendant, United States v. Kevin Ring  
  • John D. Cline, Jones Day Amicus counsel for NACDL, Skilling v. United States 
  • Thomas A. Hagemann, Gardere Wynne Sewell Counsel for Defendant, United States v. Brown et. al.  
  • Moderated by Cynthia Hujar Orr, Goldstein, Goldstein & Hilley President, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers  

Audio of the event can be found here.
Video of the event will be posted on December 8, 2009.  

Monday, December 7, 2009 • 12:00 - 2:00 pm (Lunch will be provided; CLE credit available for purchase)
House Visitor’s Center 201 (HVC-201)
Capitol Visitor’s Center  

Please RSVP to Landon.Zinda@heritage.org or (202) 608-6205

Please feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues.

For questions or additional information, contact:
Shana-Tara Regon, NACDL, at shana@nacdl.org or
Brian Walsh, The Heritage Foundation, at brian.walsh@heritage.org

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's approximately 10,000 direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.

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