Court Opinion

ID: 9455669
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:29:17.149278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:41.204552
License: Public Domain

HAYS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my opinion the conviction should be reversed because Congress exceeded its constitutional powers in enacting the statute on which the conviction was based.
I.
I do not believe that the power to extend federal criminal law to cover extortionate credit transactions can be found in the Bankruptcy Clause. The statute is clearly not a uniform law on the subject of bankruptcy. Congress has sought to justify the statute on the ground that, if extortionate means are used to collect an extension of credit, the debtor may be deprived of his right to a discharge in bankruptcy. But this reasoning would lead logically to the conclusion that under the Bankruptcy Clause Congress could exercise complete control over all economic activity since almost any such activity might have some effect on a bankrupt’s debts. The power of Congress under the Bankruptcy Clause does not appear to me to be capable of such an all-inclusive construction. Making a federal crime of every threat to collect or attempt to collect an extension of credit is not reasonably related to assuring debtors of their right to discharge in bankruptcy. The relationship is so artificial and tenuous that the power to enact the statute cannot properly be rested on the Bankruptcy Clause.
II.
If the statute is valid it must be so because it is within the scope of con*1082gressional authority to regulate interstate commerce.
But the statute does not require the government to prove, as an element of the crime, that either the threat of violence or the credit extension at issue had any effect whatsoever upon or any relation to interstate commerce. Although the Congressional findings refer to organized crime there is no requirement in the statute that the prosecution establish any connection between organized crime and the transaction which is condemned. Every instance of the use of extortionate means to collect an extension of credit is made a federal crime without regard to the relationship of the parties or their identity. Nor is there any requirement that the debt involved in the prosecution be of any particular nature or that any minimum amount be involved. Every trivial, insignificant and purely local act of the kind condemned is made a federal crime without any requirement of showing any connection with or effect upon interstate commerce. It is quite clear that not every extortionate act, no matter how small the debt involved, has any significant effect on interstate commerce.
There is no reason to believe that using threats to collect debts has any more effect upon interstate commerce than any other crime involving property. If extortionate conduct unrelated to interstate commerce can be made a federal crime, so can such crimes as robbery, burglary and larceny.
The statute here questioned is unprecedented in making a federal crime of conduct related to interstate commerce only by an assumed effect on such commerce. In all previous federal criminal statutes proof of some specific connection with interstate commerce such as movement across state lines or the use of some instrumentality of interstate commerce, such as the mails, has been required.
There is no Supreme Court case which suggests that Congress can ignore the requirement that some connection with interstate commerce must be established as a basis for conviction of a federal crime where the power of Congress to enact the statute is derived from the commerce clause. In United States v. Denmark, 346 U.S. 441, 74 S.Ct. 190, 98 L.Ed. 179 (1953), the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Johnson Act was in issue. That provision required “every manufacturer and dealer in gambling devices annually to register his business and name and monthly to file detailed information as to each device sold and delivered during the preceding month.” Id. at 443, 74 S.Ct. at 191. Án opinion written by Mr. Justice Jackson and joined by two other justices construed the Act as not applying to “purely intrastate matters.” Id. at 450, 74 S.Ct. 190. To hold otherwise they said would raise “a far-reaching question as to the extent of congressional power over matters internal to the individual states.” Id. at 447, 74 S.Ct. at 193.
Two justices, who concurred in the result, believed that the statute was too vague to be enforceable, but gave no sign of diagreement as to the constitutionality of its purported effect on intrastate transactions.
Four justices dissented stating their belief that the Act was intended to cover certain intrastate matters and that it was constitutional. However, they said at 462-463, 74 S.Ct. at 202:
“If Congress by § 3 had sought to regulate local activity, its power would no doubt be less clear. But here there is no attempt to regulate; all that is required is information in aid of enforcement of the conceded power to ban interstate transportation. The distinction is substantial.”
Thus a clear majority of the Court doubted the constitutionality of an at*1083tempt to “regulate” the intrastate activities of those engaged in commercial gambling. None of the justices upheld such power. In the statute now under consideration Congress has attempted to regulate the intrastate activities of those engaged in the crime of extortion.
In seeking to uphold congressional power to enact the statute, the majority relies principally on Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241, 85 S.Ct. 348, 13 L.Ed.2d 258 (1964), Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294, 85 S.Ct. 377, 13 L.Ed.2d 290 (1964) and Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U.S. 183, 88 S.Ct. 2017, 20 L.Ed.2d 1020 (1968). Neither in these cases nor in any of the cases cited by the majority did Congress attempt as it has here to regulate intrastate crime. Moreover, in each of the three statutes involved in the cited cases Congress was careful to require a definite relationship with interstate commerce. In Atlanta Motel, the statute was made applicable only to motels which provide lodging to transient guests. In McClung, the restaurants were made subject to the statute only where a substantial portion of the food they served has “moved in commerce.” In Maryland v. Wirtz, the employees covered by the statute were employees of enterprises engaged in commerce or in production of goods for commerce.
In the present case there is no requirement that the conduct sought to be regulated have any connection whatever with commerce. The mere use of the words “affects interstate commerce” cannot justify the abdication of judicial responsibility to interpret constitutional limitations on federal power. Here Congress has sought to use the Commerce Clause as a basis for criminal sanctions on purely local activity. I think that the prohibition of all extortionate credit transactions is not within the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. I therefore respectfully dissent.