It is unconscionable that the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to make it even harder to root out corruption in government.

But that’s what appears likely to happen after oral arguments were held in two cases involving high-profile prosecutions related to the Buffalo Billion scandal in New York state. Joseph Percoco, a former aid to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was convicted on bribery charges after accepting payments from a developer. Percoco argued before the Supreme Court that he shouldn’t have been convicted of “honest services” fraud because that crime only applies to government officials, and Percoco was working at the time for Cuomo’s re-election campaign — meaning he was technically a lobbyist.

Note that Percoco doesn’t deny actually taking money from a developer seeking to influence the state’s decision making. He argues the bribe should be allowed because he wasn’t a state employee — just a close friend of the governor working on the governor’s re-election campaign. If the Supreme Court allows such behavior, it will make bribing government officials no harder than making sure the bribes are funneled through someone on a politician’s private payroll.

Convictions against Alain Kaloyeros and co-defendants Louis Ciminelli, Steven Aiello and Joe Gerardi. in the Buffalo Billion bid-rigging case seem likely to be struck after the government’s lawyer agreed that prosecutors probably used an overly broad definition of federal wire fraud statutes. Never mind that Ciminelli doesn’t argue that he wasn’t trying to change the bidding process to ensure his firm won redevelopment contracts — his argument is that his actions don’t rise to the level of fraud because intangible information like the details of a bid for a project don’t quallify as property fraud under Supreme Court precedents.

These are the very behaviors New Yorkers want stamped out of their government. Taxpayer money should go to the best projects, not the projects who pay the most to gain the governor’s ear or who have friends in high places to make sure only one company can meet bid specifications. The actions taken by Percoco, Ciminelli, Aiello, Gerardi and Kaloyeros reek of cronyism — and it seems they’re about to get the stamp of approval from the Supreme Court. Like all of the Supreme Court’s decisions, the rulings in these two cases will have far-reaching implications. Those who want to fatten themselves at the public trough will do so, and the public will suffer for it.