Filed: Jun. 14, 2006
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED No. 04-11052 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ June 14, 2006 THOMAS K. KAHN D. C. Docket No. 02-00549 CR-S-M CLERK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus JUSTIN WAYNE MATTHEWS, Defendant-Appellee. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama _ (June 14, 2006) ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, DUBINA
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED No. 04-11052 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ June 14, 2006 THOMAS K. KAHN D. C. Docket No. 02-00549 CR-S-M CLERK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus JUSTIN WAYNE MATTHEWS, Defendant-Appellee. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama _ (June 14, 2006) ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, DUBINA ..
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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
_____________________________
FILED
No. 04-11052 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
_____________________________ June 14, 2006
THOMAS K. KAHN
D. C. Docket No. 02-00549 CR-S-M CLERK
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
JUSTIN WAYNE MATTHEWS,
Defendant-Appellee.
_________________________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Alabama
_________________________________________
(June 14, 2006)
ON REMAND FROM THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, DUBINA and HULL, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
This case is before us on remand from the Supreme Court to reconsider our
decision in the light of Gonzales v. Raich,
125 S. Ct. 2195 (2005). The district
court dismissed charges against Justin Wayne Matthews for possessing and
producing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(a) and 18 U.S.C.
2252A(a)(5)(B),1 as unconstitutional exercises of Congress’s Commerce power.
We affirmed, considering two earlier decisions from this Circuit. See United
States v. Maxwell,
386 F.3d 1042 (11th Cir. 2004) (concluding the federal
government may not criminalize the possession of child pornography when that
pornography is not shown to have traveled in interstate commerce); United States
v. Smith,
402 F.3d 1303 (11th Cir. 2005) (deciding the federal government may
not criminalize purely intrastate, non-commercial production of child pornography
in case where only link to interstate commerce was that the photographic
equipment used to film the pornography had traveled in interstate commerce).
Both of these precedential cases were also remanded by the Supreme Court for
reconsideration in the light of Raich.
We address first Matthews’s challenges to the statutes as they apply to his
situation. In the present case, the videotape on which the images were stored and
1
Matthews plead guilty to the possession and production charges, pending a ruling on his motion
to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
2
the camera used to film the images -- but not the images themselves -- had traveled
in interstate commerce. Matthews argues the statutes are unconstitutional as
applied to him because his acts did not substantially affect interstate commerce.
This Circuit has addressed previously this factual situation for the
possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). Upon reconsideration, United
States v. Maxwell,
446 F.3d 1210, 1211-12 (11th Cir. 2006), determined that the
federal government may criminalize the intrastate possession of child pornography
when the computer disks on which the images were stored, but not the images
themselves, have traveled in interstate commerce. Thus, we vacate the district
court’s dismissal of the possession charge against Matthews.
This Circuit has not addressed previously this situation for the production
statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), in the light of Raich.2 Raich rejected a challenge to
the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) by intrastate growers and users of medical
marijuana. The Supreme Court said that Congress may regulate purely local
intrastate activities if they are part of an “economic ‘class of activities’ that have a
substantial effect on interstate commerce.”
Raich, 125 S. Ct. at 2205. Congress
2
We note that under Raich the Fourth and Tenth Circuits have rejected similar challenges to 18
U.S.C. 2251(a). See United States v. Forrest,
429 F.3d 73, 76-79 (4th Cir. 2005) (determining under
Raich that 18 U.S.C. 2251(a), as applied to a defendant who used cameras manufactured in interstate
commerce to produce pornographic images of a minor, did not exceed Congress’s authority under
the Commerce Clause); United States v. Jeronimo-Bautista,
425 F.3d 1266, 1273 (10th Cir. 2005)
(same).
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needs only a rational basis for determining that such local activities substantially
affect interstate commerce.
Id. at 2208. Thus, the Court determined that, because
the CSA regulated an economic class of activities and because Congress could
conclude rationally that home-consumed marijuana could be drawn into (and thus
affect) the interstate market, Congress could prohibit constitutionally the local
possession and use of marijuana, even in instances that had only a de minimus
impact on interstate commerce.
Id. at 2206-07.
The statutory scheme in the present case is, like the CSA, a comprehensive
regulatory scheme aimed at an economic class of activities. See S. Rep. No. 95-
438, at 5 (1977), reprinted in 1978 U.S.C.C.A.N. 40 (concluding that “child
pornography . . . ha[s] become [a] highly organized, multimillion dollar industr[y]
that operate[s] on a nationwide scale.”);
Raich, 125 S. Ct. at 2198
(“[Q]uintessentially economic activities [are] the production, distribution, and
consumption of commodities for which there is an established, and lucrative,
interstate market.”).
We have no difficulty concluding that a rational basis existed for Congress
to conclude that homemade child pornography would find its way into interstate
commerce. See H.R. Rep. No. 98-536, at 17, reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 492,
508 (“Generally, the domestic material is of the ‘homemade’ variety, while the
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imported material is produced by commercial dealers.”); Pub. L. No. 104-208, §
121, 110 Stat. 3009, 3009-26 (1996) (“[T]he existence of and traffic in child
pornographic images . . . inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles, and
child pornographers who prey on children, thereby increasing the creation and
distribution of child pornography and the sexual abuse and exploitation of actual
children who are victimized as a result of the existence and use of these
materials[.]”); see also
Raich, 125 S. Ct. at 2211 (“Prohibiting the intrastate
possession or manufacture of an article of commerce is a rational (and commonly
utilized) means of regulating commerce in that product.”). Although Congress did
not find specifically facts about how the intrastate production of child
pornography substantially affects the interstate market, Raich noted that the Court
has “never required Congress to make particularized findings in order to
legislate.”
Id. at 2208. Thus, Matthews’s as-applied challenge to section 2251(a)
must fail.
We turn to Matthews’s facial challenges to the possession and production
statutes. The general rule is that to succeed on a facial challenge to a legislative
act, the challenger must show that no set of circumstances exists under which the
act would be valid. Benning v. Georgia,
391 F.3d 1299, 1304 (11th Cir. 2004).
5
Our resolution of Matthews’s as-applied challenges to the statutes demonstrates
that Matthews is unable to meet this burden.
We VACATE the decision of the district court and REMAND for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
VACATED and REMANDED.
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