Opinion ID: 770402
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 18 U.S.C. sec. 2119 and the Commerce Clause

Text: 15 Taylor argues that 18 U.S.C. sec. 2119, the federal carjacking statute under which he was convicted, exceeds congressional authority under the Commerce Clause. The Commerce Clause confers upon Congress the power [t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States. U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 3. From 1937 to 1995, the Supreme Court consistently upheld federal legislation against claims that Congress had overstepped its authority under the Commerce Clause. See Perez v. United States, 402 U.S. 146, 150 (1971); Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241, 256 (1964); Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 128-29 (1942); United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 118 (1941); National Labor Relations Bd. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 37 (1937). However, the Court ended this fifty-eight-year quiescence with United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995). 16 Overturning the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(q)(1)(A), the Lopez Court identified three broad categories of activity that Congress may regulate under its commerce power: (1) Congress may regulate the use of the channels of interstate commerce; (2) Congress is empowered to regulate and protect the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or persons or things in interstate commerce, even though the threat may come only from intrastate activities; (3) Congress' commerce authority includes the power to regulate those activities having substantial relation to interstate commerce. Lopez, 514 U.S. at 558-59 (citation omitted). The statute in Lopez criminalized the knowing possession of a firearm in a school zone, but did not contain a jurisdictional element that linked the criminalized conduct to interstate commerce or established any substantial relationship to interstate commerce. 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(q)(1)(A) (1988 & Supp. V). The Court struck the statute as unconstitutional because it is a criminal statute that by its terms has nothing to do with 'commerce' or any sort of economic enterprise. Id. at 561. 17 More recently, in United States v. Morrison, ___ U.S. ___, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 1759 (2000), the Supreme Court invalidated sec. 40302 of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) (codified at 42 U.S.C. sec. 13981). The VAWA created civil liability for the commission of a gender-based violent crime, but without any jurisdictional requirement of a connection to interstate commerce or commercial activity. 42 U.S.C. sec. 19381(c). The Court explained that in both Lopez and Morrison the noneconomic, criminal nature of the conduct at issue was central to our decision. Id. at 1750. Furthermore, the Court pointed out that in neither case was there an 'express jurisdictional element which might limit its reach [to those instances that] have an explicit connection with or effect on interstate commerce.' Id. at 1751 (quoting Lopez, 514 U.S. at 562). In both cases, Congress criminalized activity that was not commercial in nature without including a jurisdictional element establishing the necessary connection between the criminalized activity and interstate commerce. 18 Nine circuits since Lopez have achieved remarkable unanimity in upholding 18 U.S.C. sec. 2119 under the Commerce Clause. See United States v. Rivera-Figueroa, 149 F.3d 1, 3-4 (1st Cir. 1998); United States v. Cobb, 144 F.3d 319, 321- 22 (4th Cir. 1998); United States v. Romero, 122 F.3d 1334, 1339 (10th Cir. 1997); United States v. Hicks, 103 F.3d 837, 848 (9th Cir. 1996); United States v. McHenry, 97 F.3d 125, 126-29 (6th Cir. 1996); United States v. Coleman, 78 F.3d 154, 157-60 (5th Cir. 1996); United States v. Hutchinson, 75 F.3d 626, 627 (11th Cir. 1996); United States v. Bishop, 66 F.3d 569, 576-83 (3d Cir. 1995); United States v. Robinson, 62 F.3d 234, 236-37 (8th Cir. 1995). These courts have found the carjacking statute constitutional both as a regulation justified by the substantial effect of carjackings on interstate commerce, see, e.g., Rivera-Figueroa, 149 F.3d at 3; McHenry, 97 F.3d at 126-27; Bishop, 66 F.3d at 580, and as a regulation of instrumentalities of interstate commerce. See, e.g., Cobb, 144 F.3d at 322; Bishop, 66 F.3d at 588-90. Without discussing the latter conclusion, we find the former argument particularly persuasive. 19 Carjacking bears a substantial relationship to interstate commerce and poses a threat that Congress was authorized to address under the Commerce Clause. Congress enacted 18 U.S.C. sec. 2119 in response to the estimated $8 billion to $9 billion annual loss to car theft, which Congress deemed a very large and lucrative business and the nation's number one property crime problem. H. Rep. No. 102-851(I), at 14 (1992) (reprinted in 1992 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2829, 2830). Congress had a rational basis for believing that sec. 2119 would help protect the interstate businesses of automobile manufacturing and sales by addressing the rising property and insurance costs resulting directly from car theft and carjackings. See id.; see also Bishop, 66 F.3d at 578-80. In addition, Congress struck at the burgeoning interstate trade in stolen vehicles and parts expropriated through car thefts and carjackings--activity that is economic and commercial in nature, albeit criminal as well. See H.Rep. 102-85(I), at 14-15; see also United States v. Thomas, 159 F.3d 296, 297-98 (7th Cir. 1998) (treating illegal drug sales as interstate commerce under the jurisdictional element of the Hobbs Act). 20 The carjacking statute was an essential part of a larger regulation of economic activity . . . that arise[s] out of or [is] connected with a commercial transaction which viewed in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce. Lopez, 514 U.S. at 561. It was the lead provision of the Anti Car Theft Act of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-519, comprehensive federal legislation addressing the economic problem of interstate automobile theft. See Bishop, 66 F.3d at 580. In addition to attaching federal sanctions for carjacking, the Anti Car Theft Act accomplished the following: increased penalties for importation and exportation of stolen vehicles and for interstate transportation or possession of such vehicles; criminalized the operation of chop shops for dismantling stolen vehicles; provided federal funds for the local anti-car theft committees, ordered the creation of a national task force on auto theft and fraud; developed a national checking system for detecting automobile title fraud; required marking of automobile parts to combat the use of stolen parts; required strict Custom Service inspections to prevent exportation of stolen vehicles. Unlike the statutes in Morrison and Lopez, which targeted noneconomic violence, sec. 2119 is an integral part of a large-scale federal regulatory effort to protect interstate commerce and attack illegal commercial activity by criminalizing the theft of goods involved in interstate commerce. 21 Reinforcing this conclusion, sec. 2119 contains a jurisdictional element, applying its reach only to vehicles that have been transported, shipped, or received in interstate or foreign commerce. As a result of the jurisdictional limitation, sec. 2119 attaches federal penalties only to thefts of vehicles that have traveled in the stream of interstate commerce. Lopez recognized that congressional inclusion of just such a jurisdictional element (absent in Lopez itself) would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the [regulated conduct] in question affects interstate commerce. Lopez, 514 U.S. at 561. Explaining by contrast, the Court cited former 18 U.S.C. sec. 1202(a) as containing a jurisdictional component that would protect that statute from a Commerce Clause challenge. See Lopez, 514 U.S. at 562. Similarly, in Morrison, the Court noted that sec. 13981 of the VAWA contains no jurisdictional element establishing that the federal cause of action in pursuance of Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce, but explained approvingly that the Courts of Appeals have uniformly upheld a separate section of the VAWA that contains a limiting jurisdictional element. Morrison, 120 S.Ct. at 1751-52. 22 To convict under sec. 2119, the jurisdictional element requires the government to prove that the stolen vehicle had traveled in interstate commerce at some time. The government showed that the stolen Pontiac in this case was manufactured in Kansas, sold across state lines and eventually stolen in Indiana. As we explained in United States v. Bell, 70 F.3d 495, 498 (7th Cir. 1995), the mere movement of [the object of regulation], at some time, across state lines satisfied the commerce element. Accordingly, we have held that the inclusion of a jurisdictional element in 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(g)(1), which required that a weapon must have traveled in interstate commerce to be subject to the statute, was sufficient under Lopez to satisfy the Commerce Clause, at least when coupled with express congressional findings showing that the regulated activity substantially affected interstate commerce. See Bell, 70 F.3d at 498; see also United States v. Kenney, 91 F.3d 884, 886 (7th Cir. 1996). Repeatedly since Lopez we have held that a jurisdictional element ensures sufficient nexus with interstate commerce to withstand Commerce Clause challenges. See Gillespie v. City of Indianapolis, 185 F.3d 693, 704-05 (7th Cir. 1999) (18 U.S.C. sec. 922(g)(9)); United States v. Wilson, 159 F.3d 280, 285-87 (7th Cir. 1998) (18 U.S.C. sec. 922(g)(8)); United States v. Hardy, 120 F.3d 76, 77 (7th Cir. 1997) (18 U.S.C. sec. 922(u)). The government's showing that the stolen Pontiac had traveled in interstate commerce established the necessary nexus to interstate commerce under the Commerce Clause. 23