Source: http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20FCO%2020120503085
Timestamp: 2014-09-19 21:53:18
Document Index: 214544480

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 229', '§ 3231', '§ 1291', '§ 3742', '§ 8', '§ 2', '§ 8', '§ 2', '§ 2']

U.S. v. BOND | Leagle.com Home
Citing Case U.S. v. BONDNo. 08-2677. 681 F.3d 149 (2012) UNITED STATES of America
Argued November 16, 2011.Filed: May 3, 2012. Paul D. Clement [Argued], Bancroft, Ashley C. Parrish, King & Spalding, Washington, DC, Adam M. Conrad, King & Spalding, Charlotte, NC, Robert E. Goldman, Fountainville, PA, Eric E. Reed, Fox Rothschild, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant.Paul G. Shapiro [Argued], Office of United States Attorney, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee.Before: RENDELL, AMBRO, and JORDAN, Circuit Judges. OPINION OF THE COURT
FootNotes1. The government has, at different stages of this case, been willing to jettison one legal position and adopt a different one, as seemed convenient. Before the District Court, it expressly disclaimed the Commerce Clause as a basis for Congress's power to approve the Act. (See E.D. Pa. No. 07-cr-528, doc. no. 30, at 7 ("Title 18, United States Code, Section 229 was not enacted under the interstate commerce authority but under Congress's authority to implement treaties.").) The government still maintained that position the first time it appeared before us, relying only on the Necessary and Proper Clause in support of the Act's constitutionality. (See Appellee's Initial Br. at 20-32.) Once before the Supreme Court, however, the government decided that this is really a Commerce Clause case and that the position it had pressed before us is secondary. That change was in addition to abandoning the position on standing that it had previously taken. See infra note 2.2. We determined that Bond lacked standing to pursue her Tenth Amendment challenge after requesting supplemental briefing on the question of whether she "ha[d] standing to assert that 18 U.S.C. § 229 encroaches on state sovereignty in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution absent the involvement of a state or its instrumentalities[.]" (United States v. Bond, No. 08-2677, 08/14/2009 Letter to Counsel.) The government responded that Bond lacked such standing under Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 306 U.S. 118, 59 S.Ct. 366, 83 L.Ed. 543 (1939), which held that "appellants, absent the states or their officers, have no standing ... to raise any question under the [Tenth] [A]mendment," id. at 144, 59 S.Ct. 366. (United States v. Bond, No. 08-2677, 08/20/2009 Letter from Appellee.) Before the Supreme Court, however, the government reversed course and argued that Bond did have standing to make a Tenth Amendment challenge. See Bond II, 131 S.Ct. at 2361 (describing the government's initial "position that Bond did not have standing" and the changed position before the Supreme Court that "Bond does have standing").3. The District Court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742, and review de novo a challenge to the constitutionality of a criminal statute, Bond I, 581 F.3d at 133.4. The referenced section of the Constitution is the Necessary and Proper Clause, which provides Congress with the power "[t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 18.5. It appears that Bond has abandoned her facial challenge to the Act. Her argument, both in her supplemental briefing before us and at oral argument, is articulated as an as-applied challenge. (See, e.g., Appellant's Supp. Br. at 26 ("Bond is raising a ... limited and narrowly focused as-applied challenge. She contends that, whatever its validity more generally, the statute cannot be constitutionally applied to her in the circumstances of this case."); Transcript of Oral Argument at 11-13, United States v. Bond, No. 08-2677 ("3d Cir. Argument").) And, Bond's counsel commented at oral argument that he was "trying ... [to be] respectful of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence that says you don't lightly bring a facial challenge" to a statute. (3d Cir. Argument at 62.) Counsel framed his argument as being that "the principle[] that [the statute has] offended is that if you apply it so broadly that it criminalizes every malicious use of poisoning, then you've overridden the structural limitations on the government and the division of power between the federal government and the states." (Id. at 15-16.) We thus take it as granted that, although some of her past arguments move into the territory of a facial challenge, Bond is not now saying that Congress was without power to pass the Act but is, instead, arguing that Congress could not properly pass it if the Act's language is interpreted in a way that reaches her conduct. In short, we are dealing with an as-applied, rather than a facial, challenge.6. Bond's constitutional avoidance argument necessarily presumes a serious constitutional problem, notwithstanding Holland. See Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Fla. Gulf Coast Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575, 108 S.Ct. 1392, 99 L.Ed.2d 645 (1988) (stating the constitutional avoidance inquiry should be undertaken in the face of "serious constitutional problems"). Regardless of Holland's breadth, we accept Bond's suggestion that it is prudent to begin our analysis with the avoidance doctrine.7. The Act's breadth is certainly striking, seeing as it turns each kitchen cupboard and cleaning cabinet in America into a potential chemical weapons cache. Cf. Transcript of Oral Argument at 29, Bond v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2355, 180 L.Ed.2d 269 (2011) (Justice Alito's statement during oral argument that "pouring a bottle of vinegar in [a] friend's goldfish bowl" could constitute the use of a chemical weapon under the Act and expose a person to years in federal prison). We observed as much the last time this case was before us, noting, as Bond had herself acknowledged at the time, that the Act's wide net was cast "for obvious reasons." Bond I, 581 F.3d at 139. Ultimately, however, we concluded that the Act was not unconstitutionally overbroad. See id. (observing that the Act is "certainly broad," but not unconstitutionally so). Bond did not challenge that determination, see Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Bond v. United States (No. 09-1227), 2010 WL 1506717 at *i, and it remains undisturbed. That the Act is not unconstitutionally overbroad, of course, does not preclude Bond from arguing, as she now does, that the Act offends the Constitution's division of power between the federal government and the states to the extent it is used to make her conduct a federal crime.8. We do not need to determine whether the Tenth Amendment is a tautology reflecting the structural limitations on federal power embodied in the system of dual sovereignty established by the Constitution, or, as has sometimes been suggested, serves as an independent check on federal power. See New York, 505 U.S. at 156, 160, 112 S.Ct. 2408 (describing the argument that, even when Congress has the authority to regulate, "the Tenth Amendment limits the power of Congress to regulate in the way it has chosen," though noting that its actual limit "is not derived from the text" of the Tenth Amendment as the Tenth Amendment is "essentially a tautology"); Nat'l League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833, 842, 96 S.Ct. 2465, 49 L.Ed.2d 245 (1976) (recognizing a "limit[] upon the power of Congress to override state sovereignty, even when exercising its otherwise plenary powers ... which are conferred by Art. I of the Constitution" and that "an express declaration of this limitation is found in the Tenth Amendment"), overruled by Garcia v. San Antonio Metro. Transit Auth., 469 U.S. 528, 105 S.Ct. 1005, 83 L.Ed.2d 1016 (1985); cf. Gerard N. Magliocca, A New Approach to Congressional Power: Revisiting the Legal Tender Cases, 95 Geo. L.J. 119, 125 n. 30 (2006) (suggesting the Tenth Amendment's "independent force" is limited to "[l]aws that regulate states qua states"). Regardless of whether the Tenth Amendment has "independent force of its own," Bond II, 131 S.Ct. at 2367, we understand our constitutional inquiry to turn on whether principles of federalism are violated by the Act, in light of the Constitution's delegation to the President of the power "to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur," U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2, and to Congress of the power to enact "all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution... all other Powers vested by th[e] Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof," U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 18.9. It has been argued that Holland incorrectly permits "treaties ... [to] expand the legislative power of Congress." Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Executing The Treaty Power, 118 Harv. L. Rev. 1867, 1875 (2005). The Cato Institute has submitted an amicus brief taking that position, arguing against Holland's "impl[ication] that if a treaty commits the United States to enact some legislation, then Congress automatically obtains the power to enact that legislation, even if it would lack such power in the absence of the treaty." (Amicus Br. at 6.) Amicus argues that Congress's authority to act in connection with the Treaty Power only permits it to enact those laws that are necessary and proper to permit the President to make treaties—not to implement treaties once they are agreed upon. (See id. (arguing the President cannot increase Congress's power under the Necessary and Proper Clause by entering into a treaty).) Under that view, Congress could, for example, legislate to provide funding for an office of treaty-making, but could not have implemented the broadly worded Convention involved here. (See id. at 8 ("[T]his power would ... embrace any ... laws necessary and proper to ensuring the wise use of the power to enter treaties.").) Holland remains binding precedent, however, and forecloses this line of reasoning.10. The Supreme Court has focused renewed attention on federalism over the last two decades. Although many earlier cases reflect the importance of the our Constitution's basic provision for dual sovereigns, see, e.g., Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 460, 111 S.Ct. 2395, 115 L.Ed.2d 410 (1991) (observing that the rule requiring Congress to speak clearly in order to preempt state law "acknowledg[es] that the States retain substantial sovereign powers under our constitutional scheme"); South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203, 211-12, 107 S.Ct. 2793, 97 L.Ed.2d 171 (1987) (recognizing that Congress may not coerce the states when exercising its power to spend), more recent cases have been particularly pointed in describing the role federalism principles should play in analyzing assertions of federal authority. That trend began at least as early as the Court's decision in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 112 S.Ct. 2408, 120 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992), which held that the federal government could not "commandeer[] the legislative processes of the States." Id. at 176, 112 S.Ct. 2408 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). After New York, the Court struck down legislation criminalizing local conduct in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995), as beyond the Commerce Clause Power. In doing so the Court recognized the importance of the states' authority to "defin[e] and enforc[e] the criminal law," and noted that, "[w]hen Congress criminalizes conduct already denounced as criminal by the States, it effects a change in the sensitive relation between federal and state criminal jurisdiction." Id. at 561 n. 3, 115 S.Ct. 1624 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). In Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 919, 117 S.Ct. 2365, 138 L.Ed.2d 914 (1997), the Court likewise considered principles of federalism in striking down legislation that required state police to perform background checks on potential gun owners. See id. at 919, 117 S.Ct. 2365 (noting the establishment of dual sovereignties was "reflected throughout the Constitution's text," and had vested in the states "`a residuary and inviolable sovereignty.'" (quoting The Federalist No. 39 (James Madison))). Similarly, in United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d 658 (2000), the Court struck down legislation making it a federal offense to commit a crime of violence motivated by gender, observing that "[t]he Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local," id. at 617-18, 120 S.Ct. 1740, and that there was "no better example of the police power, which the Founders denied the National Government and reposed in the States, than the suppression of violent crime and vindication of its victims," id. at 618, 120 S.Ct. 1740.11. Other Founders shared Madison's understanding that the Treaty Power would be limited to matters involving foreign affairs. Cf. The Federalist No. 64 (John Jay) (noting that the "power of making treaties is an important one, especially as it relates to war, peace, and commerce"); The Federalist No. 75 (Alexander Hamilton) (stating that treaties "[were] not rules prescribed by the sovereign to the subject, but agreements between sovereign and sovereign"). Notwithstanding the Founders' view of the Treaty Power's inherent limits, there is, again, nothing in the Constitution's text explicitly confining that power. The basis for that omission is perhaps best explained by Madison, who, like others, recognized the need for flexibility with respect to the Treaty Power and cautioned against expressly defining its scope:
The Virginia Debates, supra, at 514-15.12. Although at least one commentator has disputed that shift, see Golove, supra, at 1281, 1289 (stating that "commentators ... have not rejected subject matter limitations" to the treaty power and arguing that, "[w]ere the President and Senate to make a treaty on a subject inappropriate for negotiation and agreement, and thus beyond the scope of the treaty power, the treaty would be invalid under the Tenth Amendment"), even then it has been acknowledged that "the traditional subject matter limitations on treaties are very general, and with globalization, the matters appropriate for treaties have expanded and will continue to do so," id. at 1291. That reality has been borne out by the kinds of conventions now extant in the international community. See Bradley, supra, at 397 n. 29 (citing to, inter alia, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, open for signature Nov. 20, 1989, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (1989); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, S. Exec. Rep. No. 103-38 (1994); and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, open for signature Dec. 19, 1966, 6 I.L.M. 360 (1967)). Considering the expanding subjects taken up in treaty-making and the nebulous standards associated with any lingering subject matter limitation, see Golove, supra, at 1090 ("The implication is clear: the President and Senate can make treaties on any subject appropriate for negotiation and agreement among states." (emphasis added)); Laurence H. Tribe, Taking Text and Structure Seriously: Reflections on Free-Form Method in Constitutional Interpretation, 108 Harv. L.Rev. 1221, 1261 n. 133 (1995) ("The Treaty Power is legitimate only for international agreements fairly related to foreign relations" (emphasis added)), whether the subject matter limitation has fully eroded is a serious question. For now, however, it is enough to note that, at least among certain commentators, it is no longer viewed as a meaningful restraint on the Treaty Power. Cf. Henkin, supra, at 197 & n. 89 (citing the Third Restatement for the proposition that a limitation on the Treaty Power to matters of international concern "has now been authoritatively abandoned").13. It, evidently, is not alone in that view. See, e.g., Tribe, supra, at 1261 n. 133 ("[E]stablishment of a joint, binational health care system by a treaty followed by implementing legislation would presumably be possible...."); Henkin, supra, at 474 ("[W]hat is essentially a matter of `domestic concern' becomes a matter of `international concern' if nations do, in fact, decide to bargain about it.").14. Because we conclude that the Act is valid under the Necessary and Proper Clause, we express no opinion as to the merits of the Government's newly-discovered Commerce Clause argument.15. Bond recognizes that the Holland court "treated the legislation and treaty as co-extensive." (Appellant's Supp. Br. at 23.) Her conclusion from that is that when a treaty and its implementing legislation are not coextensive, the justification for enacting the legislation under the Necessary and Proper clause can collapse. We do not disagree; as noted, a treaty and treaty-implementing legislation must be "rationally related." Ferreira, 275 F.3d at 1027. As we discuss at greater length infra, however, the Act and the Convention with which we are dealing here are coextensive at least on the question of "use," which is the only point relevant to Bond's as-applied challenge. See infra Part II.B.3.16. The treaty at issue in Holland involved a subject of traditional international concern. See 56 Cong. Rec. 7361 (1918) (legislative testimony that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act "is essential to the preservation of our cotton, grain, and timber crops, whilst the migratory game birds contribute materially to our food supply. The bill may well be considered a measure of importance as affecting the successful prosecution of the war in which we are now engaged"). As the Holland court noted, "nothing in the Constitution ... compel[led] the Government to sit by while a food supply [was] cut off and the protectors of our forests and our crops [were] destroyed." 252 U.S. at 435, 40 S.Ct. 382. Consequently, the treaty dealt with "a national interest of very nearly the first magnitude" that could "only [be furthered] by national action in concert with that of another power." Id. at 435, 40 S.Ct. 382; see id. at 433, 40 S.Ct. 382 (stating that the treaty dealt with a "matter[] of the sharpest exigency" and that "the States individually [were] incompetent to act").17. That the Founders understood Article II, § 2 to be a limited grant of power is clear, as the Tenth Amendment itself verifies. The available evidence of their thinking is that they did not intend for treaties to become a vehicle to usurp the general powers reserved to the states. Cf. United States v. Pink, 315 U.S. 203, 230, 62 S.Ct. 552, 86 L.Ed. 796 (1942) ("It is of course true that even treaties with foreign nations will be carefully construed so as not to derogate from the authority and jurisdiction of the States of this nation unless clearly necessary to effectuate the national policy."); Holmes, 39 U.S. at 569, 39 U.S. 540 ("The power to make treaties ... was designed to [be] ... consistent with ... the distribution of powers between the general and state governments.").18. We pause to consider how, if Holland were not so clear in its "valid treaty equal valid implementing legislation" holding, treaties and implementing legislation might usefully be reviewed in light of the apparently evolving understanding of the Treaty Power that we have described. See supra Part II.B.1. The Founders deliberately drafted Article II, § 2 without defining the limits of the Treaty Power because they decided its scope required flexibility in the face of unknowable future events. Cf. The Virginia Debates, supra, at 514-15 (James Madison's observation that "it [is not] possible to enumerate all the cases in which such external regulations would be necessary.... It is most safe, therefore, to leave it to be exercised as contingencies may arise"). We do not second guess the wisdom of their choice and acknowledge that any attempt to precisely define a subject matter limitation on the Treaty Power would involve political judgments beyond our ken. Cf. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 211, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962) (stating that resolution of issues "touching foreign relations" often "turn on standards that defy judicial application, or involve the exercise of a discretion demonstrably committed to" a coordinate branch); Pink, 315 U.S. at 232, 62 S.Ct. 552 ("[T]he field which affects international relations is `the one aspect of our government that from the first has been most generally conceded imperatively to demand broad national authority' ...." (citation omitted)); Lue, 134 F.3d at 83 ("[I]t is not the province of the judiciary to impinge upon the Executive's prerogative in matters pertaining to foreign affairs.").
Before the outer limits of the treaty power are reached, however, it may be that federalism does have some effect on a treaty's constitutionality. While it is not our prerogative to ignore Holland's rejection of federalism limitations upon the Treaty Power, the Supreme Court could clarify whether principles of federalism have any role in assessing an exercise of the Treaty Power that goes beyond the traditionally understood subject matter for treaties. Holland itself indicates that "invisible radiation[s] from the general terms of the Tenth Amendment" may be pertinent in deciding whether there is any space between obviously valid treaties and obviously ultra vires treaties and whether, in that space, some judicial review of treaties and their implementing legislation may be undertaken to preserve the federal structure of our government. The "invisible radiation[s]" imagery, 252 U.S. at 433-34, 40 S.Ct. 382, is unusual but, in light of current conceptions about the breadth of the Treaty Power, it may well be worth taking seriously. Cf. Printz, 521 U.S. at 921-22, 117 S.Ct. 2365 (stating that the concept of dual sovereignty was "one of the Constitution's structural protections of liberty").19. As Judge Rendell correctly points out in her concurrence, Bond's emphasis is entirely misplaced to the extent she may be contending that her prosecution violates the Necessary and Proper Clause because the United States did not have to prosecute her to comply with its obligations under the Convention. (See Rendell Concurrence Op. at 167 ("Examining the scope of Congress's Necessary and Proper Power by definition requires us to examine the Act, not its enforcement.").)20. The decision to use the Act—a statute designed to implement a chemical weapons treaty—to deal with a jilted spouse's revenge on her rival is, to be polite, a puzzling use of the federal government's power.21. Although we acknowledge that the Raich court's admonition against excising a class of activities from a valid assertion of federal power may have related to its status as a Commerce Clause case based on the aggregation principle employed in that context, see Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Fact and Fiction About Facial Challenges, 99 Cal. L.Rev. 915, 936 (2011) (opining that Raich "can be read as rejecting the possibility of successful as-applied challenges to assertions of legislative power under the Commerce Clause"), the principle would seem to hold with respect to federalism challenges arising from treaties within the Treaty Power's core. As we have already observed, see supra note 18, it is hard to argue with Holland's rejection of federalism as an applicable concept as far as such treaties are concerned.1. As her counsel argued:
(3d Cir. Argument at 13.)2. I agree with Ms. Bond that states sometimes also bear some responsibility for ensuring compliance with our treaty obligations. See Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 128 S.Ct. 1346, 170 L.Ed.2d 190 (2008). But that fact does not nullify Congress's authority to pass treaty-implementing legislation so as to ensure uniform, nationwide compliance with our international obligations, nor does it suggest that Congress lacks the power to do so.1. As I noted in our Court's previous opinion in this case, see United States v. Bond, 581 F.3d 128, 135 (3d Cir.2009), rev'd in part by, Bond v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2355, 180 L.Ed.2d 269 (2011), the scope and persuasiveness of Holland has generated much academic debate. See, e.g., Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Executing The Treaty Power, 118 Harv. L.Rev. 1867 (2005); Edward T. Swaine, Does Federalism Constrain the Treaty Power?, 103 Colum. L.Rev. 403 (2003); Curtis A. Bradley, The Treaty Power and American Federalism, 97 Mich. L.Rev. 390 (1998).2. "[T]he federal criminal code now includes at least 4,450 crimes. Congress added an average of 56.5 crimes per year to the federal code between 2000 and 2007 and has raised the total number of federal crimes by 40 percent since 1970. Moreover, the federal criminal code has grown not just in size but in complexity, making it difficult to both (1) determine what statutes constitute crimes and (2) differentiate whether a single statute with different acts listed within a section or subsection includes more than a single crime and, if so, how many." John C. Eastman, The Outer Bounds of Criminal Law: Will Mrs. Bond Topple Missouri v. Holland?, 2011 Cato. Sup.Ct. Rev. 185, 193 (2011) (internal footnotes, quotation marks, and alterations omitted). Comment