United States v. Barry Kaplan

BIRCH, Circuit Judge,

dissenting, in which TJOFLAT, ANDERSON and BARKETT, Circuit Judges, join:

I respectfully dissent. The majority’s holding will result in the federalization of any crime involving extortion to acquire money. Plainly stated, “[t]his is a case about federalism.”1 If we were to accept the government’s position on this issue, the Hobbs Act would completely subsume state extortion and robbery laws by creating a federal criminal offense in each and every case in which the pay-off is at all likely to cross state lines. Surely, Congress cannot have intended any such result.

The plain…