Silver v. United States
Petition for certiorari denied on January 25, 2021
Issues: Whether a public official can be convicted of bribery
absent proof of an agreed exchange with the alleged
bribe payor, based solely on his unexpressed,
unilateral state of mind when receiving a benefit; (2) whether a conviction for Hobbs Act extortion can be
based on a theory of simple bribery; and (3) whether, if the government elects not to argue harmless
error, a court of appeals may raise harmless error sua
sponte, without providing the defendant any
opportunity to be heard on the issue.
SCOTUSblog Coverage
- Justices vacate rulings on Trump and emoluments (Amy Howe, January 25, 2021)
- Last batch of possible grants before February recess (John Elwood, January 21, 2021)
- Blockbuster Watch (John Elwood, January 13, 2021)
- Relist Watch (John Elwood, January 7, 2021)
- Relist Watch Select (John Elwood, December 8, 2020)
- Petitions of the week: Warrantless home searches, border-wall funding and more (Andrew Hamm, September 2, 2020)
| Date | Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding) |
|---|
| Jul 20 2020 | Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 24, 2020) |
| Aug 10 2020 | Waiver of right of respondent United States, et al. to respond filed. |
| Aug 26 2020 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2020. |
| Aug 27 2020 | Response Requested. (Due September 28, 2020) |
| Sep 23 2020 | Motion to extend the time to file a response from September 28, 2020 to October 28, 2020, submitted to The Clerk. |
| Sep 24 2020 | Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including October 28, 2020. |
| Oct 26 2020 | Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 28, 2020 to October 30, 2020, submitted to The Clerk. |
| Oct 28 2020 | Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including October 30, 2020. |
| Oct 30 2020 | Brief of respondents United States, et al. in opposition filed. |
| Nov 16 2020 | Reply of petitioner Sheldon Silver filed. (Distributed) |
| Nov 17 2020 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/4/2020. |
| Dec 07 2020 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/11/2020. |
| Jan 04 2021 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021. |
| Jan 11 2021 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/15/2021. |
| Jan 19 2021 | DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/22/2021. |
| Jan 25 2021 | Petition DENIED. Justice Gorsuch, with whom Justice Thomas joins, dissenting from denial of certiorari. (Detached Opinion) |
