Opinion ID: 2995203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Category One: Channels of Interstate

Text: Commerce As we noted in United States v. Kenney, 91 F.3d 884, 888 (7th Cir. 1996), Congress has, under the Commerce Power, the right to regulate the use or misuse of the channels of commerce. Congress may protect the channels of interstate commerce from immoral or injurious uses, see Lopez, 514 U.S. at 558 (citing Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241, 256 (1964)), and may forbid or punish the use of the channels to promote dishonesty or the spread of any evil or harm across state lines, see Brooks v. United States, 267 U.S. 432, 436 (1925). This category has been used to prevent illicit goods from traveling through the channels of commerce. See United States v. Robinson, 119 F.3d 1205, 1210 (7th Cir. 1996) (citing Heart of Atlanta, 379 U.S. at 256). Examples of activity falling within category one include the shipment of stolen goods, kidnapped persons, prostitutes and guns. See United States v. Wilson, 73 F.3d 675, 680 n.5 (7th Cir. 1996). In Kenney, we explicitly considered the scope of Congress’ authority to regulate the channels of interstate commerce and concluded that 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(o), which outlaws the transfer or possession of machine guns, did not fit comfortably within this analytical framework. See Kenney, 91 F.3d at 889. Significantly, we noted that, unlike sec. 922(o), all of the category one examples cited in Lopez contain a jurisdictional nexus element. See id. (citing 18 U.S.C. sec.sec. 2312- 2315 (interstate shipment of stolen goods); 18 U.S.C. sec. 1201 (interstate transport of kidnapping victims); United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941) (regulation of working conditions in the production of goods for interstate commerce)). Notably, the application of sec. 2251(a), at issue in this case, differs from sec. 922(o) in precisely the way that we found so significant in Kenney. Unlike sec. 922(o), the activity here is tied specifically to interstate activity. The jurisdictional nexus must be established; the picture must have been transported in interstate commerce, a movement that Congress may prohibit in order to prevent the spread of injurious or immoral uses. See Lopez, 514 U.S. at 558. Through sec. 2251(a), Congress has set out to prohibit the interstate movement of a commodity through the channels of interstate commerce, see Lopez, 514 U.S. at 559, and also to protect those channels from the immoral impact of child pornography. The application of sec. 2251(a) to Mr. Schaffner’s conduct achieves that permissible congressional purpose.