CORRECT ANSWER:

NO, legislative immunity does not prevent criminal prosecution of the legislator. Prosecution for bribery does not require a protected inquiry into a legislator's motives for the legislative actions of sponsoring or voting on a bill because the crime occurs when the legislator accepts money in exchange for a promise to sponsor the bill and can be proved even if the legislator does not actually sponsor the bill is CORRECT.

Although sponsorship of legislation falls within the "sphere of legitimate legislative activity," the United States Supreme Court has found that "[t]aking a bribe is, obviously, no part of the legislative process or function; it is not a legislative act (U.S. v. Brewster, 92 S. Ct. 2531, 2544 (1972)). In this hypothetical, because a successful bribery prosecution requires only proof that the accused legislator accepted money in exchange for a promise, fulfilled or unfulfilled, to sponsor a bill and does not require examination of the legislator's legislative action of actually sponsoring the legislation, legislative immunity does not prevent criminal prosecution of the legislator.

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