United States v. McCord

904 F. Supp. 1029, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17859, 1995 WL 684580
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedJuly 31, 1995
DocketNo. 4:CR95-3015
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 904 F. Supp. 1029 (United States v. McCord) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. McCord, 904 F. Supp. 1029, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17859, 1995 WL 684580 (D. Neb. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

KOPF, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on the Magistrate Judge’s Memorandum, Order, and Recommendation (filing 17) and the objection to such Memorandum, Order and Recommendation (filing 23), filed by the Defendant as allowed by 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(C) and NELR 72.4.

I have conducted, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) and NELR 72.4, a de novo review of the portions of the Recommendation to which objections have been made. Inasmuch as Judge Piester has fully, carefully, and correctly found the facts and applied the law, I need only state that the indictment against Defendant should not be dismissed for the reasons that the provisions under which the Defendant is charged (18 U.S.C. §§ 922(n) and 924(a)(1)(A)) are constitutional exercises of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause and are neither overbroad nor vague.

[1031]*1031IT IS ORDERED:

1. the Magistrate Judge’s Memorandum, Order and Recommendation (filing 17) recommending denial of Defendant’s Amended Motion to Dismiss Indictment (filing 14) is adopted;

2. Defendant’s objection to Magistrate Judge Piester’s Memorandum, Order and Recommendation (filing 23) is denied.

MEMORANDUM, ORDER and RECOMMENDATION

PIESTER, United States Magistrate Judge.

Defendant McCord has filed an amended motion to dismiss the indictment. (Filing 14.) For the reasons discussed more fully below, I shall recommend the motion be denied.

On March 16, 1995 Defendant McCord (“defendant”) was indicted on one count of making a false statement to obtain a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. 924(a)(1)(A), and one count of unlawfully receiving a firearm shipped in interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(n). In an amended motion to dismiss (filing 14) defendant argues that the indictment should be dismissed because subsection 922(n) exceeds Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause, that subsection 924(a)(1)(A) is void for vagueness and that both subsections are unconstitutionally over-broad. I address each of these arguments separately.

Commerce Clause

Defendant argues that Count II against her must be dismissed because 18 U.S.C. § 922(n) exceeds Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause. In support of this argument defendant relies on the watershed case United States v. Alfonso Lopez, — U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995), in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(l)(A), holding that the Act exceeded Congress’ authority to legislate under the Commerce Clause.1 The Act made it a federal offense for any individual to knowingly possess a firearm at a place s/he knew or had reasonable cause to believe to be a school zone (1000 feet of a school).2

Although the Court has identified three broad categories of activity that Congress may regulate under its commerce power, here, as in Lopez, only the final category provides possible authority for regulating the

[1032]*1032conduct here: Congress’ power to regulate activities that “substantially affect” interstate commerce. See Lopez, — U.S. at ---, 115 S.Ct. at 1629-30. In concluding that the Gun-Free School Zones Act failed under the “substantially affect” interstate commerce test, the Court reasoned in part:

Section 922(q) is a criminal statute that by its terms has nothing to do with “commerce” or any sort of economic enterprise, however broadly one might define those terms. Section 922(q) is not an essential part of a larger regulation of economic activity, in which the regulatory scheme could be undercut unless the intrastate activity were regulated. It cannot, therefore, be sustained under our cases upholding regulations of activities that arise out of or are connected with a commercial transaction, which viewed in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce.
Second, § 922(q) contains no jurisdictional element which would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the firearm possession in question affects interstate commerce. For example, in United States v. Bass, 404 U.S. 336, 92 S.Ct. 515, 30 L.Ed.2d 488 (1971), the Court interpreted former 18 U.S.C. § 1202(a), which made it a crime for a felon to “receiv[e], posses[s], or transpor[t] in commerce or affecting commerce ... any firearm.” 404 U.S., at 337, 92 S.Ct., at 517. The Court interpreted the possession component of § 1202(a) to require an additional nexus to interstate commerce both because the statute was ambiguous and because “unless Congress conveys its purpose clearly, it will not be deemed to have significantly changed the federal-state balance.” Id., at 349, 92 S.Ct., at 523. The Bass Court set aside the conviction because although the Government had demonstrated that Bass had possessed a firearm, it had failed “to show the requisite nexus with interstate commerce.” Id., at 347, 92 S.Ct., at 522. The Court thus interpreted the statute to reserve the constitutional question whether Congress could regulate, without more, the “mere possession” of firearms. See id., at 339, n. 4, 92 S.Ct., at 518, n. 4; see also United States v. Five Gambling Devices, 346 U.S. 441, 448, 74 S.Ct. 190, 194, 98 L.Ed. 179 (1953) (plurality opinion) (“The principle is old and deeply imbedded in our jurisprudence that this Court will construe a statute in a manner that requires decision of serious constitutional questions only if the statutory language leaves no reasonable alternative”). Unlike the statute in Bass, § 922(q) has no express jurisdictional element which might limit its reach to a discrete set of firearm possessions that additionally have an explicit connection with or effect on interstate commerce.
Although as part of our independent evaluation of constitutionality under the Commerce Clause we of course consider legislative findings, and indeed even congressional committee findings, regarding effect on interstate commerce, see, e.g., Preseault v. ICC, 494 U.S. 1, 17, 110 S.Ct.

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904 F. Supp. 1029, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17859, 1995 WL 684580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mccord-ned-1995.