Should government officials be allowed to receive gratuities from individuals or businesses to which they awarded government business? SCOTUS says yes. Money is at the root of all the cynicism of our institutions in the United States, and the failure of which is slowly destroying the country. We don’t trust government officials because we know they are influenced by lobbyist contributions. We don’t trust doctors because we think they are taking money from big pharma. We don’t trust newspapers, news stations, and cable news because we think they are only publishing stories that make them money. We don’t trust CEOs because we think every decision that they make is to drive up stock price and their own wealth. We don’t trust SCOTUS because we think they are given lavish gifts (gratuities?) from people who may have business before the court, and so there no reason to think they would rule on this case otherwise.