Listening to Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court arguments about two prosecutions won by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, it seems likely that the bad guys will go free. If and when that happens, consider it a lucky break for Andrew Cuomo’s former hatchet man Joe Percoco and a foursome caught rigging Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program — and the umpteenth signal that America desperately needs better laws to police public corruption.

Percoco took $35,000 from a developer for helping win state approval on a project. He made the call to the head of the right agency and pocketed the money during a short break in 2014 when he was off of Cuomo’s government payroll to manage Cuomo’s successful reelection campaign. Percoco then quickly resumed his position back on the government payroll.

If Percoco hadn’t been on a brief hiatus from his official duties, it would’ve all been unquestionably illegal — but, in the sordid spirit of Supreme Court decisions in […]