Evans v. United States

The Court’s analysis is based on the premise, with which I fully agree, that when Congress employs legal terms of art, it “ 'knows and adopts the cluster of ideas that were attached to each borrowed word in the body of learning from which it was taken and the meaning its use will convey to the judicial mind.’” Ante, at 259 (quoting Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246, 263 (1952)). Thus, we presume, Congress knew the meaning of common-law extortion when it enacted the Hobbs Act, 18 U. S. C. § 1951. Unfortunately, today’s opinion misapprehends that meaning and misconstrues the statute. I…