Kelly v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 7, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 7, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
OCTOBER TERM, 2019 391 Syllabus KELLY v. UNITED STATES et al. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit No. 18–1059. Argued January 14, 2020—Decided May 7, 2020 During former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's 2013 reelection cam- paign, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, avidly courted Democratic mayors for their endorsements, but Fort Lee's Mayor re- fused to back the Governor's campaign. Determined to punish the Mayor, Kelly, Port Authority Deputy Executive Director William Bar- oni, and another Port Authority offcial, David Wildstein, decided to re- duce from three to one the number of lanes long reserved at the George Washington Bridge's toll plaza for Fort Lee's morning commuters. To disguise their efforts at political retribution, Wildstein devised a cover story: The lane realignment was for a traffc study. As part of that cover story, the defendants asked Port Authority traffc engineers to collect some numbers about the effect of the changes. At the sugges- tion of a Port Authority manager, they also agreed to pay an extra toll collector overtime so that Fort Lee's one remaining lane would not be shut down if the collector on duty needed a break. The lane realign- ment caused four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, and only ended when the Port Authority's Executive Director learned of the scheme. Baroni and Kelly were convicted in…
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