United States v. Michael A. Moody

555 F. App'x 867
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 3, 2014
Docket13-10521
StatusUnpublished

This text of 555 F. App'x 867 (United States v. Michael A. Moody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Michael A. Moody, 555 F. App'x 867 (11th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Michael A. Moody appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment filed against him, which charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(e). On appeal, Moody argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that § 922(g) is an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s Commerce Clause power as applied to purely intrastate conduct, such as mere possession of a firearm, under United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995). Moody concedes that this argument is foreclosed by our existing precedent but claims that it would be appropriate for us to review our stance on the *868 constitutionality of § 922(g) in light of our “potential expansion of the principles of Lopez as expressed in Florida v. U.S. Department of Health,” Florida ex rel. Attorney General v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 648 F.3d 1285 (11th Cir.2011), aff'd in part, rev’d in part sub nom. Nat’l Fed’n of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. -, 182 S.Ct. 2566, 183 L.Ed.2d 450 (2012). Moody also contends that § 922(g) violates the Tenth Amendment’s guarantee of state sovereignty and the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

We review a district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss the indictment for an abuse of discretion, and we review any underlying legal errors de novo. United States v. Broughton, 689 F.3d 1260, 1272 (11th Cir.2012). We also review de novo a district court’s conclusion as to the constitutionality of a challenged statute, United States v. Eckhardt, 466 F.3d 938, 943 (11th Cir.2006), and whether a criminal statute is unconstitutionally vague. United States v. Nelson, 712 F.3d 498, 504 (11th Cir.2013). In addition, the law of this Circuit is “emphatic” that only the Supreme Court or this Court sitting en banc can judicially override a prior panel decision. Cargill v. Turpin, 120 F.3d 1366, 1386 (11th Cir.1997).

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), it is unlawful for a convicted felon “to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.” In Lopez, the Supreme Court held that gun control legislation related to possession of firearms in school zones was an invalid exercise of Congress’s Commerce Clause power partly because the statute could not be sustained under the reasoning that the regulated activities, in the aggregate, substantially affected interstate commerce. See Lopez, 514 U.S. at 561, 115 S.Ct. at 1631. In addition, the Supreme Court emphasized that the challenged statute “contain[ed] no jurisdictional element which would ensure, through case-by-case inquiry, that the firearm possession in question affectfed] interstate commerce.” Id.

Since Lopez, we have continually held that § 922(g) is not a facially unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s Commerce Clause power because unlike the statute at issue in Lopez, § 922(g) contains a jurisdictional requirement. See, e.g., United States v. Jordan, 635 F.3d 1181, 1189 (11th Cir.2011) (“We have repeatedly held that Section -922(g)(1) is not a facially unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause because it contains an express jurisdictional requirement.”); United States v. Scott, 263 F.3d 1270, 1273 (11th Cir.2001) (reaffirming the holding that “the jurisdictional element of the statute, i.e., the requirement that the felon ‘possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition,’ immunizes § 922(g)(1) from [a] facial constitutional attack”); United States v. Dupree, 258 F.3d 1258, 1260 (11th Cir.2001) (upholding the conclusion that “the jurisdictional element of § 922(g) brings it within the commerce powers of the Congress”); United States v. McAllister, 77 F.3d 387, 389-90 (1 1th Cir.1996) (holding that the jurisdictional element of § 922(g) defeats a facial challenge to the statute even after the Supreme Court’s decision in Lopez).

More relevant to Moody’s argument here, we have also held that § 922(g) is not unconstitutional as applied to a defendant who merely possessed a firearm within state lines so long as the government introduces sufficient evidence showing that the firearm has a minimal nexus to interstate commerce, i.e., that the firearm was *869 manufactured, assembled, or sold outside the state or that it travelled in interstate commerce. See, e.g., Jordan, 635 F.3d at 1189 (holding that § 922(g) was not unconstitutional “as applied to a defendant who possessed a firearm only intrastate” because the government demonstrated that the firearm involved in that case was manufactured and assembled outside the state); Dupree, 258 F.3d at 1260 (holding that § 922(g) requires only a minimal nexus to interstate commerce and that the defendant’s actions of brandishing a firearm in Georgia that was manufactured in California satisfied the jurisdictional requirement of § 922(g)); McAllister, 77 F.3d at 390 (holding that even in the wake of Lopez, § 922(g) is constitutional as applied to a defendant who merely possessed a firearm within state lines so long as the firearm has a “minimal nexus” to interstate commerce). As it is undisputed that the firearm involved in this case was manufactured outside the state of Florida, the jurisdictional element of § 922(g) was satisfied, and the statute is not unconstitutional as applied to Moody’s conduct.

In addition, Moody argues that our decision in Florida ex rel. Attorney General v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 648 F.3d 1235, somehow altered our prior holdings with respect to the constitutionality of § 922(g) as a valid exercise of Congress’s Commerce Clause power. In that case, we held that the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act exceeded Congress’s regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause because it compelled citizens to engage in commercial activity and regulated inactivity.

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Related

Cheffer v. Reno
55 F.3d 1517 (Eleventh Circuit, 1995)
United States v. McAllister
77 F.3d 387 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)
Cargill v. Turpin
120 F.3d 1366 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Myron Dupree
258 F.3d 1258 (Eleventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. William Andrew Scott
263 F.3d 1270 (Eleventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Robert Eckhardt
466 F.3d 938 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
New York v. United States
505 U.S. 144 (Supreme Court, 1992)
United States v. Lopez
514 U.S. 549 (Supreme Court, 1995)
United States v. Wayerski
624 F.3d 1342 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Jordan
635 F.3d 1181 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Richard William Peterson
689 F.3d 1260 (Eleventh Circuit, 2012)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
132 S. Ct. 2566 (Supreme Court, 2012)
The Indigo Room, Inc. v. City of Fort Myers
710 F.3d 1294 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Tony DeVaughn Nelson
712 F.3d 498 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)
National Ass'n of Government Employees, Inc. v. Barrett
968 F. Supp. 1564 (N.D. Georgia, 1997)
Hiley v. Barrett
155 F.3d 1276 (Eleventh Circuit, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
555 F. App'x 867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-michael-a-moody-ca11-2014.