Opinion ID: 307845
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the applicability of the travel act

Text: 62 Kahn next claims that since the transactions in question here were isolated and had no connection with a comprehensive scheme of interstate racketeering, application of the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1952, was improper. He relies chiefly upon Rewis v. United States, 401 U.S. 808, 91 S.Ct. 1056, 28 L.Ed.2d 493 (1971), and two of its progeny, United States v. Altobella, 442 F.2d 310 (7th Cir. 1971), and United States v. McCormick, 442 F.2d 316 (7th Cir. 1971). 63 None of those cases calls for reversal of the Travel Act convictions here. In Rewis, the Supreme Court held that neither the language nor the legislative history of the Travel Act showed that Congress intended the statute to apply to a purely local gambling operation just because some of its customers crossed state lines. Altobella reached a similar result in a case where the only use of interstate facilities resulted from the fact that an extortion victim cashed a check on an out-of-state bank to pay off the defendants. Similarly, in McCormick the only ostensible interstate facet of the crime, running an illegal Indiana lottery, occurred when a local newspaper in which the defendant had advertised for some salesmen mailed some of its copies out of state. 64 The common thread through each of these decisions is that the defendants themselves engaged in no interstate activities, and that the total interstate travel aspect of the enterprises was either marginal or unforeseen. Indeed, the Rewis court left open the question of whether proof of active solicitation of an interstate clientele might come within the Act, and cited with explicit approval cases where the statute was applied to individuals whose agents or employees crossed state lines in furtherance of an illegal activity. 401 U.S. at 813, 814, 91 S.Ct. 1056. And, in United States v. Lee, 448 F.2d 604, 606-607 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 858, 92 S.Ct. 107, 30 L.Ed.2d 100 (1971), the Seventh Circuit found Rewis and Altobella inapplicable where the interstate travel was that of a member, rather than a victim, of the illegal enterprise. 65 The case at hand shows a knowing and intentional use of interstate commerce not only by various members of the conspiracy, but also by Kahn himself. Kahn went from New York to Johnstown and agreed upon the illegal payments; Kahn arranged for one check to be mailed from New York to Pennsylvania; the mayor and his son came up from Johnstown to New York on two separate occasions to collect payoff checks from Kahn and Teleprompter. Such activities, far from representing the unforeseen and marginal use of interstate facilities present in Rewis and its progeny, constituted conduct central to the illegal enterprise performed by partners to the crime. The Travel Act was correctly applied. Cf. United States v. Levine, 457 F.2d 1186, 1188-1189 (10th Cir. 1972).