By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 25, 2011//
Hobbs Act
Constitutionality
Robbery of a convenience store can be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act.
“In this case, there is no similar risk that the Hobbs Act will obliterate all limits on federal power. Although robbery itself is not necessarily economic activity, Carr’s crime targeted a business engaged in interstate commerce. And unlike the statutes at issue in Lopez and Morrison, the Hobbs Act contains a jurisdictional element which requires the government to prove the interstate nexus. Peterson, 236 F.3d at 852 (‘[The Hobbs Act] does not federalize all robberies because all robberies per se affect interstate commerce; rather, it applies only to robberies with the proven effect.’). An act of violence against even one business, like the convenience store in this case, could conceivably deter economic activity and thus harm national commerce. The economic harm would not necessarily depend upon the amount of money with which any particular defendant absconds. If retail stores, in the aggregate, have a substantial effect on commerce (which they undoubtedly do, see Sutton, 337 F.3d at 796 n.2), then the federal government has a legitimate interest in preventing any crime like the one in this case.”
Affirmed.
10-3202 U.S. v. Carr
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Conley, J., Gottschall, J.