Opinion ID: 2994587
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constitutionality of the Hostage Taking Act

Text: On appeal, the defendants also argue that the Hostage Taking Act violates the Fifth Amendment because it discriminates against aliens by criminalizing actions by them (and their associates) which would not be illegal if everyone involved were American citizens. Specifically, the defendants claim that the Hostage Taking Act is unconstitutional because the Act discriminates against aliens by using alienage as a proxy for terrorism. We apply the deferential rational basis test to federal statutes that classify based on alienage and will uphold the statute if it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest. United States v. Santos-Riviera, 183 F.3d 367, 373 (5th Cir. 1999) (citing Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 79-87 (1976); United States v. Lue, 134 F.3d 79, 87 (2d Cir. 1998); United States v. Lopez-Flores, 63 F.3d 1468, 1475 (9th Cir. 1995)). Furthermore, the defendants do not attempt to distinguish the three cases from our sister circuits which hold that the Hostage Taking Act is constitutional. Santos-Riviera, 183 F.3d at 373-74; Lue, 134 F.3d at 81-87; Lopez- Flores, 63 F.3d at 1471-75. In Lue, 134 F.3d at 87, the second circuit explained: The classification drawn by the Hostage Taking Act covers all aliens involved in hostage-taking incidents. The asserted purpose of the statute, along with the antecedent Convention, is to address a matter of grave concern to the international community: hostage taking as a manifestation of international terrorism. See Hostage Taking Convention, preamble, T.I.A.S. No. 11,081. We recognize that in the Hostage Taking Act Congress employs the classification of alienage to proscribe conduct which may not always bear a direct relationship to the Act’s principal object of stemming acts of terrorism, and that at some point a classification of this sort may have a relationship to [the] asserted goal [which] is so attenuated as to render the distinction arbitrary or irrational. City of Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 446, 105 S. Ct. at 3258; see also United States v. Song, No. 95 Cr. 129, 1995 WL 736872, at  (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 13, 1995). However, in this instance, Congress rationally concluded that a hostage taking within our jurisdiction involving a noncitizen is sufficiently likely to involve matters implicating foreign policy or immigration concerns as to warrant a federal criminal proscription. The connection between the act and its purpose is not so attenuated as to fail to meet the rational-basis standard. See Lopez-Flores, 63 F.3d at 1475; Song, 1995 WL 736872 at  5; United States v. Pacheco, 902 F. Supp. 469, 472 (S.D.N.Y. 1995). Like the Fifth Circuit, we adopt the reasoning and holding of Lue. Consequently, the defendants’ attempt to put a new spin on an old argument has fallen upon deaf ears, and we uphold the convictions of both defendants as constitutional.