Constitutional Law-Ninth Circuit Upholds Constitutionality of Felon-in-Possession of Body Armor Statute with De Minimus Jurisdictional Element-United States v. Alderman, 565 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 2009), reh’g en banc denied, 593 F.3d 1141 (9th Cir. 2010)

Although Congress may, as a general matter, extensively regulate interstate commerce, the federal government’s authority to legislate in areas of traditional state concern is limited.  Courts, spurred by a renewed interest in federalism, have begun scrutinizing federal criminal laws that regulate noncommercial intrastate behavior by means of de minimus jurisdictional elements—statutory provisions that purport to ensure legislation’s constitutionality by limiting its applicability to conduct involving items that have previously traveled in interstate commerce.  In United States v. Alderman, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a case of first impression, considered whether 18 U.S.C. § 931 constitutionally prohibits a felon from possessing body armor where the sole link to commerce is the body armor’s prior interstate movement.  The court deemed § 931’s jurisdictional element sufficient to render the statute an appropriate exercise of congressional power under the Commerce Clause. . .