Opinion ID: 2975986
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hobbs Act violations

Text: We normally review constitutional challenges to criminal convictions de novo as questions of law. United States. v. Knipp, 963 F.2d 839, 843 (6th Cir. 1992). At trial, however, Watkins’s attorney did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the nexus to interstate commerce in the Hobbs Act robberies at issues in this appeal—namely, Cashland, Checkland, and Quick Cash. We will therefore review Watkins’s Hobbs Act challenge under the plain-error standard. Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b); see also United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731 (1993) (holding that a plain error may be considered by an appellate court even if the error was not brought to the district court’s attention). “To establish plain error, a defendant must show that: (1) an error occurred in the district court; (2) the error was obvious or clear; (3) the error affected defendant’s substantial rights; and (4) this adverse impact seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the judicial proceedings.” United States v. Gardiner, 463 F.3d 445, 459 (6th Cir. 2006) (quotation marks omitted).
The Hobbs Act provides that “[w]hoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion . . . shall be fined . . . or imprisoned.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). Federal jurisdiction over Hobbs Act violations is rooted in the Commerce Clause. United States v. Davis, 707 F.2d 880, 884 (6th Cir. 1983). “Commerce,” for the purposes of the Hobbs Act, includes “all . . . commerce over which the United States has jurisdiction.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(3). As Watkins’s counsel conceded at oral argument, the law of this circuit provides that a showing of a de minimis connection with interstate commerce satisfies the Hobbs Act where a robbery involves a business entity. United States v. Davis, 473 F.3d 680, 681-83 (6th Cir. 2007) (considering and rejecting the argument that the Hobbs Act requires a substantial, as opposed to a de minimis, effects test where the robberies are directed against business entities); United States v. Chance, 306 F.3d 356, 374 (6th Cir. 2002) (discussing the de minimis test as the appropriate standard under the Hobbs Act); United States v. Peete, 919 F.2d 1168, 1174 (6th Cir. 1990) (same). 3. The district court did not err in finding that Watkins’s Hobbs Act robberies had a de minimus effect on interstate commerce The Supreme Court has held that the Commerce Clause provision of the Hobbs Act is extremely broad. Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212, 215 (1960) (“[The Hobbs] Act speaks in broad language, manifesting a purpose to use all the constitutional power Congress has to punish No. 05-4551 United States v. Watkins Page 4 interference with interstate commerce by extortion, robbery or physical violence.”). Proof of a de minimis effect on interstate commerce, then, does not require the government to prove that a Hobbs Act robbery had an actual effect on interstate commerce, but only that there was a “realistic probability” of such an effect. Peete, 919 F.2d at 1174. In the present case, the robberies occurred at the location of the abducted employees’ places of business. The amount of money stolen and the nature of the businesses targeted make clear that the robberies had at least a de minimis effect on interstate commerce. Specifically, Watkins stole: (1) approximately $20,000 from Quick Cash, which was in the business of making small loans, selling money orders, and cashing checks drawn on banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), (2) $10,800 from Cashland, which was essentially in the same business as Quick Cash, and (3) $20,900 from Checkland, which was also in the check-cashing business. Although the government’s evidence on Checkland’s nexus to interstate commerce is slim, it is not so lacking that reversal is warranted. This court reached a similar conclusion in the recent case of United States v. McComb, 2007 WL 2859743 at  (6th Cir. Oct. 3, 2007), where the court found that the evidence establishing that a robbery of one Payless Shoe store had a de minimis effect on interstate commerce was sufficient to satisfy the de minimis standard with regard to a different Payless Shoe store that was also robbed by the same defendants. The court in McComb also determined that the robbery of a business entity that draws checks on nationwide banks has a de minimis effect on interstate commerce. Id. All three nonbank entities that Watkins robbed in the present case were check-cashing businesses engaged in interstate commerce in the form of cashing private, business, and government checks. Because the government established that at least one of the cash-checking stores drew checks on nationwide banks, we agree with the district court that a reasonable inference can be drawn that the other two did as well. See McComb, 2007 WL 2859743 at . The government thus met its burden of establishing that all of Watkins’s Hobbs Act robberies had a de minimis effect on interstate commerce.