Court Opinion

ID: 9817321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 04:14:41.131874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:14:49.936060
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the court’s per curiam opinion as well as in Judge Kleinfeld’s separate concurrence. I share Judge Kleinfeld’s view that, given the construction that RICO has been afforded by the Supreme Court, we are no longer free to read it as an anti-racketeering statute. Rather, starting with Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 496-500, 105 S.Ct. 3275, 87 L.Ed.2d 346 (1985), it has been stretched both in scope and meaning far beyond that which Congress originally intended and has become, through judicial construction, a wide ranging act that provides treble damages for all kinds of conduct unrelated to the racketeering activity that Congress sought to control. Although I disagree with this construction, we must follow the law as it is determined by the Supreme Court. In my view, however, it is well past the time for our lawmakers to take another look at RICO and consider amending the statute so as to limit it to its original purpose.