Pinckard v. Pinckard

How later courts describe this case

• overwhelming evidence that victim would lose its position as town and county insurance broker if payments not met
• "The prohibition against schemes or artifices to defraud is properly interpreted to be independent of the clause 'for obtaining money or property.' "
• “the concepts of reliance, and de facto control and dominance ... are at the heart of fiduciary duty”
• ballot initiative banning storage of radioactive waste generated out of state and transportation of such waste to disposal sites within the state
• conduct charged in mail fraud indictment was within power of government to proscribe and application of statute in this case would not deter protected political activities in other contexts
• mail fraud indictment for political corruption will not chill legitimate political associational activities protected by first amendment
• “The broad language of the statute ... is not unconstitutionally vague because [the statute] contains the requirement that the defendant must have acted willfully and with a specific intent to defraud.”
• rights of citizens to have government conducted honestly and free from corruption and fraud