7th Circuit issues two Commerce Clause rulings.

• Author: Ziemer, David

Byline: David Ziemer

The Seventh Circuit issued two decisions on Aug. 5 concerning the Commerce Clause. In the first, the court once again held that the federal prohibition on felons possessing firearms is not unconstitutional, and, in the second, it held that luring drug dealers across state lines to rob them violates the Hobbs Act.

U.S. v. Mitchell

The first case actually was a consolidation of two, U.S. v. Mitchell, from the Northern District of Indiana, and U.S. v. Peete, from the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Both Peete and Mitchell were charged under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) with being a felon in possession of a firearm. In each case, the firearm at issue was manufactured in another state, and thus, traveled in interstate commerce at some point prior to possession. Both unsuccessfully contended that Congress exceeded its authority under the Commerce Clause by criminalizing the possession of a gun that happened to travel in interstate commerce at some time in the past, and appealed.

The Seventh Circuit consolidated the appeals, and affirmed.

The court noted that, since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995), in which the Court struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which made it a federal offense to possess a firearm near a school, it has rejected challenges to the felon-in-possession statute on several occasions: United States v. Lewis, 100 F.3d 49, 51 (7th Cir.1996); United States v. Williams, 128 F.3d 1128, 1133 (7th Cir.1997); United States v. Lee, 72 F.3d 55, 58 (7th Cir.1995); United States v. Bell, 70 F.3d 495, 498 (7th Cir.1995).

Since then, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has applied Lopez to narrow one criminal statute and invalidate another law on Commerce Clause grounds. Jones v. United States, 529 U.S. 848, 120 S.Ct. 1904, 146 L.Ed.2d 902 (2000); United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d 658 (2000).

In Jones, the Court considered 18 U.S.C. 844(i), which makes it a federal crime to damage or destroy "by means of fire or an explosive, any ... property used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce." The court held that the statute did not apply to a non-commercial residence, although the home was insured by an out-of-state insurer, and provided with gas by an out-of-state utility.

In Morrison, the Court struck down provisions of the Violence Against Women Act...