US v. Lewis

• Citation: 936 F. Supp. 1093
• Decision Date: 05 September 1996
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 95-076P.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. James N. LEWIS.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

936 F. Supp. 1093

UNITED STATES of America v. James N. LEWIS.

Civil Action No. 95-076P.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

September 5, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Richard W. Rose, United States Attorneys Office, Providence, RI, for Plaintiff.

John M. Cicilline, Randy Olen, Providence, RI, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

PETTINE, Senior District Judge.

Defendant James Lewis has been indicted for violation of the Child Support Recovery Act (CSRA), 18 U.S.C. § 228. The defendant has filed a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment, arguing that the CSRA exceeds Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause and invades state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment. For the reasons discussed below, I find that the CSRA is constitutional and that this Court may retain jurisdiction. Therefore, the defendant's Motion is denied.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On September 26, 1995, the defendant was indicted under the Child Support Recovery Act (CSRA), 18 U.S.C. § 228. The indictment charges that the defendant, starting January 7, 1993, willfully failed to pay a past due child support obligation as determined by the Circuit Court for Broward County, Florida. The indictment further alleges that the child is a resident of Rhode Island, while the defendant is not.

According to the defendant, on December 4, 1989, he was the defendant in a paternity suit in the Circuit Court in Broward County, Florida. On January 12, 1993, the Florida Hearing Officer in that court issued a report which established paternity and child support on the basis of the child's mother's affidavit. The report states that the defendant failed to appear at several scheduled blood tests.

The defendant alleges that he never received notice or service of process in these state court proceedings. Since his arrest in the present case, the defendant has apparently petitioned the Broward County Circuit Court to set aside the judgment on the grounds that he had never received notice of the state court proceedings. According to the defendant, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Lynch has reopened the matter and will hold a hearing on the defendant's motion to vacate the judgment.

The defendant is currently released on bail and awaits trial on the CSRA charge. He has filed a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment, alleging that the CSRA is unconstitutional. The defendant's Motion is proper under Fed. R.Crim.P. 12(b), which permits pre-trial motions for issues that can be decided without trial, including defects in the indictment. The Motion to Dismiss is now before this Court.

LEGAL DISCUSSION

The CSRA states, "whoever willfully fails to pay a past due support obligation with respect to a child who resides in another State shall be punished as provided in subsection (b)." 18 U.S.C. § 228(a). The statute defines "past due support obligation" as "any amount — (A) determined under a court order or an order of an administrative process pursuant to the law of a State to be due from a person for the support and maintenance of a child or of a child and the parent with whom the child is living; and (B) that has remained unpaid for a period longer than one year, or is greater than $5,000." 18 U.S.C. 228(d)(1). The defendant argues that the CSRA goes beyond the scope of Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause and invades the exclusive province of the states under the Tenth Amendment.

Nine district courts and the Second Circuit have upheld the constitutionality of the CSRA; four district courts have found the CSRA unconstitutional. Compare United States v. Sage, 92 F.3d 101 (2d Cir.1996); United States v. Ganaposki, 930 F.Supp. 1076 (M.D.Pa.1996); United States v. Collins, 921 F.Supp. 1028 (W.D.N.Y.1996); United States v. Nichols, 928 F.Supp. 302 (S.D.N.Y.1996); United States v. Kegel, 916 F.Supp. 1233 (M.D.Fla.1996); United States v. Bongiorno, 1996 WL 208508 (D.Mass. 1996); United States v. Sage, 906 F.Supp. 84 (D.Conn.1995), aff'd, 92 F.3d 101 (2d Cir. 1996); United States v. Hopper, 899 F.Supp. 389 (S.D.Ind.1995); United States v. Murphy, 893 F.Supp. 614 (W.D.Va.1995); United States v. Hampshire, 892 F.Supp. 1327 (D.Kan.1995); with United States v. Parker, 911 F.Supp. 830 (E.D.Pa.1995); United States v. Bailey, 902 F.Supp. 727 (W.D.Tex. 1995); United States v. Schroeder, 894 F.Supp. 360 (D.Ariz.1995), reconsideration denied, 912 F.Supp. 1240; United States v. Mussari, 894 F.Supp. 1360 (D.Ariz.1995), reconsideration denied, 912 F.Supp. 1248.

The courts holding that CSRA is unconstitutional have found that the CSRA does not substantially affect interstate commerce as required under the Commerce Clause, that the CSRA upsets the federal-state balance envisioned by the Constitution and incorporated by the Tenth Amendment, and that federal jurisdiction is inappropriate because of the domestic relations exception and abstention doctrines. I shall consider each of these contentions in turn.

THE COMMERCE CLAUSE

Section 8 of Article I of the United States Constitution provides that, "The Congress shall have Power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." Starting with NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 893 (1937), courts have broadly interpreted Congress' power under the Commerce Clause. In fact, the Supreme Court had not invalidated a federal statute as exceeding Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause for over fifty years, until April 1995, when the Court decided United States v. Lopez, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995). Lopez involved a challenge to the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which made it a federal crime to possess a firearm within a school zone. 18 U.S.C. § 922(q). The Court found that Congress had exceeded its power in regulating "a local student at a local school." Lopez, at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 1634. The Court pointed out that the Gun-Free School Zones Act did not regulate an economic activity, contained no jurisdictional element requiring an interstate nexus, and had no explicit legislative history delineating its connection to interstate commerce. Id., at ___ - ___, 115 S.Ct. at 1631-32.

In Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Ass'n, 452 U.S. 264, 101 S.Ct. 2352, 69 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981), the Supreme Court adopted a two-pronged approach to evaluate whether Congress has exceeded its authority under the Commerce Clause. Accordingly, to evaluate the Constitutionality of the CSRA, this Court must first determine whether a rational basis exists for the conclusion that the regulated activity sufficiently affects interstate commerce. Id. at 276, 101 S.Ct. at 2360. If such a rational basis exists, this Court must then decide whether the specific regulation is reasonably adapted to the goals permitted by the Constitution. Id. Further, courts must not invalidate Congressional legislation simply because of judicial disagreement with Congress' policy decisions. FCC v. Beach Comm., Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313-14, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 2101-02, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1933). Lopez did not overrule, and, in fact, applied this rational basis test. ("The Court has ... undertaken to decide whether a rational basis existed for concluding that a regulated activity sufficiently affected interstate commerce."). ___ U.S. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 1629.

Lopez identified three categories of activity that Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause:

First, Congress may regulate the use of the channels of interstate commerce. Second, Congress is empowered to regulate and protect the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, even though the threat may come only from intrastate activities. Finally, Congress' commerce authority includes the power to regulate those activities having a substantial relation to interstate commerce, ... i.e., those activities that substantially affect interstate commerce.

Lopez, at ___ - ___, 115 S.Ct. at 1629-30 (citations omitted). As the activity regulated by the CSRA is arguably within Congress' Commerce Clause authority under both the first and third categories described in Lopez, I shall consider the two separately.

Channels of Interstate Commerce

The CSRA can be upheld as constitutional because the regulation of child support payments is, in itself, the regulation of the channels of interstate commerce. "The authority of Congress to keep the channels of interstate commerce free from immoral and injurious uses has been frequently sustained and is no longer open to question." Caminetti v. United States, 242 U.S. 470, 491, 37 S.Ct. 192, 197, 61 L.Ed. 442 (1917). "What is regulated by CSRA is the payment of a debt from one state and the satisfaction of that debt in another, whether the mechanism used to make this transaction is the United States Mail, an electronic funds transfer, or some other interstate channel." Nichols, 928 F.Supp. at 314. The defendant argues that, because the CSRA penalizes the failure to make child support payments, the crime could be committed without any use of the channels of interstate commerce. As the Second Circuit explained:

Such reasoning would mean that Congress would have no power to prohibit a monopoly so complete as to thwart all other interstate commerce in a line of trade. Yet the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2, is within the Commerce Clause power. To accept the defendant's reasoning would disable the United States from punishing under the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, making it a crime to "obstruct" interstate commerce, someone who successfully prevented interstate trade by extortion and murder. There would be no trade to obstruct.

Sage, 92 F.3d at 105. Under the defendant's reasoning, Congress would be permitted to regulate parents who underpay their required child support but not parents who fail to pay their required child support at all. Such an interpretation is unfathomable.

The court in Parker found that the CSRA did not regulate commerce because the failure to pay child support...