Court Opinion

ID: 9466257
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:09:52.040928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:37.775310
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In United States v. Grzywacz, 603 F.2d 682, 690 (7th Cir. 1979), I set forth my basic view on the issue of the extension of the term “enterprise” as used in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) beyond commercial entities. The same question is before us here and, thus, I see no reason to repeat that view. Additional comment is necessary, however, because the cases involve “enterprises” that are different in nature.
In Grzywacz this court was concerned with a city police department, concededly a legitimate entity, albeit not a commercial or business type of organization. Here we are confronted with a so-called “pattern” of criminal activity — the robbing of homes. To urge, as the Government did in Grzy-wacz, that a police department is an “enterprise” within the meaning of the statute, although farfetched and impermissible by any reasonable interpretation of the statute, has some semblance of logic to it. Here, to maintain, as the majority does, that the pattern of criminal activity engaged in by Aleman and his associates is an “enterprise” within the meaning of the statute is to turn logic on its head.
In order to reach the majority’s conclusion that such an enterprise exists, we are required to assume that the defendants were infiltrating their own unlawful enterprise through a “pattern of racketeering activity.” To my way of thinking, this assumption is absurd. To infiltrate an enterprise, that is, “to conduct or participate . in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs [section 1962(c)],” the enterprise must preexist before it is infiltrated by racketeering. Under the facts and the majority’s reasoning based on those facts, the enterprise and the racketeering are one and the same. The racketeering defines the enterprise and the enterprise comprises the racketeering.
The majority’s faulty reasoning is illustrated by its statement that, “the Act is not restricted to members of organized crime.” This misses the point. The point is: What meaning did Congress intend to give to the term “enterprise”? Following the above quoted sentence, the majority then says: “Although the stated purpose of the Organized Crime Act, of which RICO is a part, is to eradicate organized crime, the statute itself does not require proof that the defendant or the enterprise are connected with organized crime.” Not only is this statement a non sequitur, but it again misses the point on which the case turns. Even *312taken as true, it does not relate to the question before us.
I believe that the recent Sixth Circuit opinion in United States v. Sutton, 605 F.2d 260 (6th Cir. 1979), correctly decides this very issue. The facts are analogous, and the Government’s contentions are the same. Judge Merritt has offered, with admirable clarity, an analysis that is irrefutable.