Court Opinion

ID: 9492134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:32:53.052325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:07.706298
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with most of the majority opinion. However, I respectfully dissent from the conclusion that an automated teller machine located in a grocery store constitutes a “bank” for the purposes of the Federal Bank Robbery Act.
A little more than a decade before automotive bank heists would cause Congress to federalize the crime of bank robbery, the Supreme Court described a common understanding of a “bank” that rings true even today: “Speaking generally, a bank is a moneyed institution to facilitate the borrowing, lending and caring for money.” Smith v. Kansas City Title & Trust Co., 255 U.S. 180, 210, 41 S.Ct. 243, 65 L.Ed. 577 (1921).
Since then, the banking industry has continued an institution-based concept of a bank, generally defining one as “a quasi *755public institution, for the custody and loan of money, the exchange and transmission of the same by means of bills and drafts, and the issuance of its own promissory notes, payable to bearer, as currency, or for the exercise of one or more of these functions.” 1A Michie on Banks and Banking § 2, at 5-6 (1998).
Federal and state statutory schemes governing the banking industry also maintain institutionally-based definitions. See, e.g., 12 U.S.C. § 1841(c). Without digressing to a discussion of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1938 or an exhaustive survey of laws pertaining to financial institutions, it suffices to say that Congress has been quite careful to define what a bank is, and what it is not. Particularly in its treatment of branch banking, Congress has been especially clear to declare that off-premises ATMs are not banks. For example, in defining a “domestic branch” of a bank, Congress specifically provided that “[t]he term ‘domestic branch’ does not include an automated teller machine or a remote service unit.” 12 U.S.C. § 1813(o). The banking statutes pertaining to the availability of expedited funds refer to a “proprietary ATM” as being at, adjacent to, or in close proximity of, a receiving depository institution. 12 U.S.C. § 4001(16). All other ATMs are, under the statute, “nonproprietary ATMs.” Id. § 4001(18).
The regulatory distinction between banks and ATMs is logical and critical. In their ordinary use, automated teller machines are not merely proprietary mechanical or electronic extensions of a bank. Rather, an ATM usually functions as a gateway to a shared ATM network in which account holders may use their own bank’s ATM card to withdraw cash from another bank’s owned ATM. See Valley Bank of Nevada v. Plus Sys., Inc., 914 F.2d 1186, 1188 (9th Cir.1990). Through shared ATM networks, banks subscribe to uniform reimbursement practices which allow remote site transactions made on ATMs owned by other banks. Id. Thus, although an ATM may be owned by an individual bank, it functions quite differently, serving as a deposit and withdrawal conduit to numerous financial institutions.
The specific statute at issue, the Federal Bank Robbery Act, is consistent with this regulatory backdrop. In statutory interpretation, one must begin with specific words employed, for if the language of a statute is unambiguous, its plain meaning controls. United States v. Robinson, 94 F.3d 1325, 1328 (9th Cir.1996). The relevant provision of the Federal Bank Robbery Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2113(f) defines a “bank” as:
any member bank of the Federal Reserve System, and any bank, banking association, trust company, savings bank, or other banking institution organized or operating under the laws of the United States, ... and any institution the deposits of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
ATMs are not members of the Federal Reserve System; they are not organized under the laws of the United States; and they are not “institutions” the deposits of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Thus, from a plain reading of the statute, off-premises ATMs are not within the Act’s reach. If Congress had intended the federal crime of bank robbery to include off-premises assets, or to encompass robberies in shopping malls, airports, or grocery stores, it could have stated so specifically.
One of the cardinal principles of criminal law is notice. “No one may be required at peril of life, liberty or property to speculate as to the meaning of penal statutes. All are entitled to be informed as to what the State commands or forbids.” Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 453, 59 S.Ct. 618, 83 L.Ed. 888 (1939). On its face, the Federal Bank Robbery Act does not apply to off-premises machines which dispense cash. A creative interpretation of the Act that would transform grocery stores into banks because of the presence of a cash machine would not afford sufficient notice of the criminal activity to survive constitu*756tional muster. Thus, I agree with the Tenth Circuit’s view, albeit in dicta, that attempting to steal from an off-premises ATM does not constitute a sustainable violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). United States v. Willis, 102 F.3d 1078, 1081 n. 2 (10th Cir.1996).
In this case, federal prosecutors had the option of proceeding under other well-defined federal statutes, deferring to local law enforcement, or attempting to expand the reach of the federal bank robbery statutes. They chose the last, a choice I believe unjustified by statute or the principles of federalism. Chief Justice Rehnquist has recently cautioned against expanding federal jurisdiction by federalizing crimes traditionally handled by state courts. See William H. Rehnquist, The 1998 Year-End Report of the Federal Judiciary 4 (1998). As the Chief Justice appropriately noted:
Federal courts were not created to adjudicate local crimes, no matter how sensational or heinous the crimes may be. State courts do, can, and should handle such problems.

Id.

The extension of the Federal Bank Robbery Act to include off-premises ATMs constitutes an unwarranted and unnecessary judicial federalization of burglary-a crime well within the expertise of local law enforcement and state courts. See generally American Bar Association Task Force on Federalization of Criminal Law, The Federalization of Criminal Law (1998).
In sum, at least in this stage of our history, machines are not banks. Accordingly, unless Congress dictates otherwise, prosecution of those who burglarize grocery stores should be left to the states. Thus, although I concur in the contempt conviction and all but part 4 of the majority opinion, I would reverse the conviction for violation of the Federal Bank Robbery Act.