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UNITED STATES v. MORRISON

Souter, J., dissenting

(quoting H. Feild & L. Bienen, Jurors and Rape: A Study
in Psychology and Law 95 (1980)).

“Almost one-quarter of convicted rapists never go to
prison and another quarter received sentences in local
jails where the average sentence is 11 months.” S. Rep.
No. 103–138, at 38 (citing Majority Staff Report of Sen-
ate Committee on the Judiciary, The Response to Rape:
Detours on the Road to Equal Justice, 103d Cong., 1st
Sess., 2 (Comm. Print 1993)).

“[A]lmost 50 percent of rape victims lose their jobs
or are forced to quit because of the crime’s severity.”
S. Rep. No. 102–197, at 53 (citing Ellis, Atkeson, & Cal-
houn, An Assessment of Long-Term Reaction to Rape,
90 J. Abnormal Psych., No. 3, p. 264 (1981).

Based on the data thus partially summarized, Congress

found that

“crimes of violence motivated by gender have a sub-
stantial adverse effect on interstate commerce, by de-
terring potential victims from traveling interstate, from
engaging in employment in interstate business, and
from transacting with business, and in places involved,
in interstate commerce . . . [,] by diminishing national
increasing medical and other costs, and
productivity,
decreasing the supply of and the demand for interstate
products . . . .” H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 103–711, p. 385
(1994).

Congress thereby explicitly stated the predicate for the
exercise of its Commerce Clause power.
Is its conclusion
irrational in view of the data amassed? True, the method-
ology of particular studies may be challenged, and some of
the ﬁgures arrived at may be disputed. But the sufﬁciency
of the evidence before Congress to provide a rational basis
for the ﬁnding cannot seriously be questioned. Cf. Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 520 U. S. 180, 199 (1997)