Opinion ID: 196811
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Constitutionality of Section 844(i)

Text: 14 Although Appellant failed to raise his Lopez-based challenge below, 4 a claim that a statute is unconstitutional or that the court lacked jurisdiction may be raised for the first time on appeal. United States v. Seuss, 474 F.2d 385, 387 n. 2 (1st Cir.), cert. denied., 412 U.S. 928, 93 S.Ct. 2751, 37 L.Ed.2d 155 (1973); see also, Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b)(2) (lack of jurisdiction may be noticed by the court at any time). We review a determination of the constitutionality of a federal statute de novo. See United States v. Diaz-Martinez, 71 F.3d 946, 953 (1st Cir.1995) (applying, without explicitly stating so, de novo review to Lopez-based constitutional challenge not raised during pre-Lopez proceedings); United States v. Sherlin, 67 F.3d 1208, 1213-14 (6th Cir.1995) (applying de novo review to Lopez-based constitutional challenge to the federal arson statute), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 795, 133 L.Ed.2d 744 (1996); United States v. Aguilar-Aranceta, 957 F.2d 18, 21 (1st Cir.1992) (reviewing de novo questions of constitutional law). But see United States v. Spires, 79 F.3d 464, 465 (5th Cir.1996) (reviewing only for plain error Lopez-based constitutional challenge not raised below during pre-Lopez proceedings); United States v. Dupaquier, 74 F.3d 615, 619 (5th Cir.1996) (same); Daigle v. Maine Medical Center, Inc., 14 F.3d 684, 687-88 (1st Cir.1994) (The raise-or-waive rule applies with full force to constitutional challenges.). Regardless of what standard of review we apply, the result is the same since even under the more favorable de novo standard, we reject Appellant's constitutional and jurisdictional challenges, finding that Lopez in no way provides grounds for reversal in this case.
15 As with the federal arson statute at issue here, Congress has often invoked its authority under the Commerce Clause to federalize criminal activity. Appellant points to Lopez and its invalidation of the Gun Free School Zone Act 5 as evidence that the Supreme Court's present position is to restrictively interpret the Commerce Clause when it is used as a foundation for a criminal statute. See Lopez, --- U.S. at ---- n. 3, 115 S.Ct. at 1631 n. 3 (Under our federal system, the 'States possess primary authority for defining and enforcing the federal law.'  (quoting Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 635, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 1720, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993))). The Lopez Court recognized three categories of activity which Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause: (i) the use of the channels of interstate commerce; (ii) the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or persons or things in interstate commerce, even though the threat may come only from intrastate activities; and (iii) those activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Lopez, --- U.S. at ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1629-30. 16 After Lopez, the Court explained in United States v. Robertson, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1732, 131 L.Ed.2d 714 (1995) (per curiam), that these three bases of congressional authority are analytically distinct, reaffirming the distinction between activities engaged in interstate commerce and purely intrastate activities having a substantial effect on interstate commerce. See Robertson, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1733. The Court stated that the  'affecting commerce' test was developed in our jurisprudence to define the extent of Congress' power over purely intra state commercial activities that nonetheless have substantial inter state effects. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1733 (emphasis in original) (concluding that transporting equipment and workers from out of state fell within 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a)'s alternative criterion without regard to the affecting commerce test). 17 We consider the federal arson statute and the Court's pre-Lopez holding in Russell in light of this framework, concluding that Lopez does not invalidate 18 U.S.C. § 844(i). First, by its plain language, Section 844(i) clearly falls under both the second and third Lopez categories in that it protects property that is either used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce. 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) (emphasis added). 18 Second, the federal arson statute contains the requisite jurisdictional element and thus is readily distinguishable from the provision invalidated in Lopez. As we recently noted in Diaz-Martinez, the Supreme Court in Lopez found significant that the statute in that case, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) [the federal firearms possession statute], 'contain[ed] no jurisdictional element which would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the firearm possession in question affects interstate commerce.'  Diaz- Martinez, 71 F.3d at 953 (quoting Lopez, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1631). We held that, unlike Lopez, the jurisdictional element was present in 18 U.S.C. § 922(k) because it contains a specific requirement that the firearm with the obliterated serial number have been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. 18 U.S.C. § 922(k); Diaz-Martinez, 71 F.3d at 953 (holding that [w]hatever the reach of Lopez, it does not invalidate 18 U.S.C. § 922(k)). Here, too, the federal arson statute contains the requisite jurisdictional element which similarly ensures that, case-by-case, the property damaged by the arson must have been used in interstate ... commerce or in an activity affecting interstate ... commerce. 18 U.S.C. § 844(i). 19 Third, while the federal arson statute is similar to that struck down in Lopez in that it does not regulate commercial or economic activity, see United States v. Pappadopoulos, 64 F.3d 522, 526-27 (9th Cir.1995), it does regulate the damage or destruction of business property that satisfies the requisite interstate nexus, see Russell, 471 U.S. at 860-62, 105 S.Ct. at 2457 (Congress at least intended to protect all business property); United States v. Flaherty, 76 F.3d 967, 974 (8th Cir.1996). Particularly in the absence of any mention of Russell in the majority opinion of Lopez, we can find no reason to conclude that Lopez invalidates Russell 's analysis of Section 844(i)'s purpose and legislative history or its conclusion that the federal arson statute constitutionally regulates arson of business property that satisfies the requisite jurisdictional element. Russell, 471 U.S. at 860-62, 105 S.Ct. at 2456-58. After all, whatever Lopez ' reach, it certainly did not purport to overrule cases upholding application of the Commerce Clause power to wholly intrastate activities satisfying the requisite nexus to interstate commerce. See United States v. Genao, 79 F.3d 1333, 1336 (2d Cir.1996). 20 Furthermore, we reject Appellant's argument that Section 844(i) is unconstitutional because it improperly intrudes into Massachusetts' primary authority for defining and enforcing the criminal law. By virtue of the fact that the federal arson statute is a criminal law it indeed intrudes upon states' traditional dominion over the criminal law. Lopez, --- U.S. at ---- n. 3, 115 S.Ct. at 1631 n. 3 (Under our federal system, the 'States possess primary authority for defining and enforcing the criminal law.'  (quoting Abrahamson, 507 U.S. at 635, 113 S.Ct. at 1720)). However, not every federal foray into criminal law is invalid. United States v. Bishop, 66 F.3d 569, 584 (3d Cir.1995) (rejecting Lopez-based challenge to the constitutionality of the federal carjacking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2119). Where, as here, the criminal statute satisfies the constitutional limits of the Commerce Clause, it withstands the challenge that it interferes with the states' ability to define and enforce the criminal law. See Russell, 471 U.S. at 860-62, 105 S.Ct. at 2456-58. Finally, we note that we join our fellow circuits in arriving at the conclusion that 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) passes constitutional muster under Lopez. See, e.g., Flaherty, 76 F.3d at 974; United States v. Denalli, 73 F.3d 328, 329 (11th Cir.1996); Sherlin, 67 F.3d at 1213-14; Pappadopoulos, 64 F.3d at 526. 21 Because we find no basis to question the presumed validity of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i), we conclude that the district court properly had subject-matter jurisdiction conferred by virtue of the fact that Appellant was charged with an offense against the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 3231. See United States v. Ryan, 41 F.3d 361, 363-64 (8th Cir.1994) (noting that if [the jurisdictional] element is not satisfied, then [defendant] is not guilty; but the court is not by the failure of proof on that element deprived of judicial jurisdiction.).