Opinion ID: 201935
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unconstitutionality of the Statute as Applied

Text: 18 We quickly dispose of Buttrick's as-applied constitutional challenge, since the claim of unconstitutionality is controlled by our prior decision in United States v. Gamache, 156 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.1998). Gamache rejected the argument that 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b) punishes mere thought. See id. at 7-8. Other circuits have come to the same conclusion. United States v. Bredimus, 352 F.3d 200, 208-09 (5th Cir.2003); United States v. Han, 230 F.3d 560, 563 (2d Cir.2000); see also Hoke v. United States, 227 U.S. 308, 323, 33 S.Ct. 281, 57 L.Ed. 523 (1913) (upholding as constitutional similar statutory language in the Mann Act). 19 As Gamache holds, the statute punishes those who perform the act of crossing the state line with the intent to engage in the specified wrongful conduct. See 156 F.3d at 8. The intent requirement is often proved through another series of acts. See id. Here, as in Gamache, those acts include defendant's repeated correspondence with his intended paramour, his setting up the details of the assignation, his bringing of the condoms, and his actual traveling to the general vicinity of the rendezvous point, on the scheduled date and at the scheduled time. See id. Buttrick did not abstractly contemplate crossing state boundaries with a thought to committing a crime upon reaching his destination; he did much more. Id. 20 Buttrick attempts to distinguish Gamache on the ground that he allegedly displayed a clear intent not to engage in any illicit conduct. This argument is nothing more than an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence and does not state a constitutional claim. 21 His argument that the statute violates due process by interfering with the right to travel suffers from the same infirmity. He argues not that Congress cannot regulate travel as it does in the statute, but that since he lacked the requisite intent, the statute as applied is unconstitutional. Again, this is nothing more than an attack on the jury's finding that he had the requisite intent. Cf. Bredimus, 352 F.3d at 209-10 (holding that § 2423(b) does not impermissibly burden the right to foreign travel because it only criminalizes travel done with illicit intent). 22