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UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Kevin Paul WOODRUFF, Defendant-Appellee

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit1997-08-06No. No. 96-10397
122 F.3d 1185

Summary

Holding. The court vacated the judgment of acquittal and remanded the case, holding that the district court erred by applying the substantial effects standard from Lopez to a Hobbs Act prosecution when the de minimis effect standard is the proper legal test for such cases.

Kevin Woodruff was convicted of four counts of Hobbs Act robbery, but the district court granted his motion for acquittal on all counts. The district court believed that the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Lopez had changed the legal standard for Hobbs Act prosecutions, requiring the government to prove that the defendant's conduct had a substantial effect on interstate commerce rather than merely a minimal effect. The appeals court disagreed with this interpretation of Lopez.

The appellate court held that Lopez does not apply to Hobbs Act cases because the Hobbs Act is directly aimed at economic activity affecting interstate commerce, unlike the statute at issue in Lopez, which targeted purely local, noneconomic conduct. The proper legal standard for Hobbs Act robbery remains the de minimis effect test, not the substantial effects test that Lopez established. The district court therefore applied the wrong legal framework when it granted the judgment of acquittal.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether United States v. Lopez changed the jurisdictional standard for Hobbs Act robbery prosecutions
  • The proper degree of interstate commerce effect required to satisfy Hobbs Act requirements
  • Distinction between the Gun-Free School Zones Act at issue in Lopez and the Hobbs Act

Procedural posture

The government appealed from the district court's grant of the defendant's post-verdict motion for judgment of acquittal.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

FARRIS, Circuit Judge:

Kevin Woodruff was convicted by a jury of four counts of interfering with interstate commerce by robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). The district court granted Woodruffs post-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal on all counts. 941 F.Supp. 910 (N.D.Cal.1996). The United States appeals. We vacate the judgment of acquittal and remand.

In a Hobbs Act robbery prosecution, the government is required to prove two things: (1) that the defendant either committed or attempted to commit a robbery, and (2) a nexus between the defendant’s acts and interstate commerce. 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a); Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212, 218, 80 S.Ct. 270, 273, 4 L.Ed.2d 252 (1960). Each is an element of the crime that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Nukida, 8 F.3d 665, 669-73 (9th Cir.1993).

The district court held that the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995), overruled our well-settled rule that the government need show only a de minimis effect on interstate commerce to satisfy the Hobbs Act’s jurisdictional element. See, e.g., United States v. Phillips, 577 F.2d 495, 501 (9th Cir.1978); United States v. Zemek, 634 F.2d 1159, 1173 n. 20 (9th Cir.1980). After Lopez, the district court reasoned, the government was required to prove that a defendant’s conduct had a substantial effect on interstate commerce in order to support a Hobbs Act robbery charge. Because in the district court’s opinion, no reasonable juror could have found that Woodruffs conduct had such an effect, the court entered a judgment of acquittal for Woodruff.

We have since held that Lopez did not render our use of the de minimis standard in Hobbs Act robbery cases constitutionally infirm. In United States v. Atcheson, 94 F.3d 1237, 1241-43 (9th Cir.1996), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 1096, 137 L.Ed.2d 229 (1997), we affirmed a Hobbs Act robbery conviction using the de minimis effect standard, rejecting the defendants’ argument that Lopez had undermined its validity. We explained that unlike the Gun-Free School Zones Act at issue in Lopez, “which was aimed at purely local, noneconomic activities,” see Lopez, 514 U.S. at 558-59, 115 S.Ct. at 1630-31 (describing the Gun-Free School Zones Act as “a criminal statute that by its terms has nothing to do with ‘commerce’ or any sort of economic enterprise”), the Hobbs Act is “directly aimed at economic activity” that in some way or degree affects interstate commerce. Atcheson, 94 F.3d at 1242. Lopez’s “substantially affects” test is not applicable to the Hobbs Act, we explained, because the Lopez test was developed “to define the extent of Congress’s power over purely mirastate commercial activities that nonetheless have substantial inter state effects,” id. (quoting United States v. Robertson, 514 U.S. 669, 115 S.Ct. 1732, 131 L.Ed.2d 714 (1995)(per curiam)(emphasis in original)), and the Hobbs Act “is concerned solely with inter state, rather than intra state, activities.” Id.

By requiring the government to show that Woodruffs crimes had a substantial effect on interstate commerce, the district court applied the wrong legal standard. Although it appears that the government’s evidence would have been sufficient to support Wood-ruffs conviction under the proper standard, that question is not before this court. The district court may consider that issue on remand, if necessary. The judgment of acquittal is VACATED and the case REMANDED for further proceedings.