Court Opinion

ID: 9634479
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:14:24.94962+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:03.676793
License: Public Domain

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur because the majority’s decision is consistent with the law of this Circuit and most other circuits, and is thus correct. However, I think those decisions are inconsistent with the recent Supreme Court precedent, and more fundamentally, the doctrine of federalism.
In United States v. Lopez, the Supreme Court held that to fall within the scope of the Commerce Clause, the regulated activity must substantially affect interstate commerce. United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 559, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995) (“Where economic activity substantially affects interstate commerce, legislation regulating that activity will be sustained.”). In United States v. Morrison, the Supreme Court expressly rejected an *904aggregation theory when regulating non economic activity.
The regulation and punishment of intrastate violence that is not directed at the instrumentalities, channels, or goods involved in interstate commerce has always been the province of the States. Indeed, we can think of no better example of the police power, which the Founders denied the National Government and reposed in the States, than the suppression of violent crime and vindication of its victims.
United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 617, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d 658 (2000) (citations omitted). By continuing to allow a de minimis standard for individual violations of the Hobbs Act, we are essentially nullifying the “substantial effect” test of Lopez and Morrison. See United States v. Dupree, 323 F.3d 480, 485 (6th Cir.2003) (holding that “the traditional de minimis standard for Hobbs Act violations survived Lopez”).1
The effect of our Court’s rulings is that every local robbery of a business in the United States is a federal crime. I acknowledge that the Supreme Court has held that Congress intended to include within the scope of the Hobbs Act conduct that was already punishable under the state robbery and extortion statutes. See United States v. Culbert, 435 U.S. 371, 379-80, 98 S.Ct. 1112, 55 L.Ed.2d 349 (1978). However, I cannot believe that this is what the Founding Fathers intended. Moreover, I have harbored the hope that the Supreme Court in Lopez was seeking to restore a proper state-federal balance that gives actual meaning to the term federalism. I also hope that the Supreme Court will consider the issue of whether the de minimis test survives Lopez and Morrison.

. Notably, United States v. Dupree never directly addressed the holding from Morrison, but rather found it sufficient to rely on United States v. Smith, 182 F.3d 452 (6th Cir.1999), which was decided after Lopez but before Morrison.