Opinion
The panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. Fed. R.App. P. 34(a)(2).
NOT FOR PUBLICATION. (See Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure Rule 36-3)
On appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Manuel L. Real, Chief Judge, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed that Congress did not exceed the scope of its Commerce Clause authority in enacting statute defining offense of failure to pay legal child support obligations.
Affirmed.
Page 961.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Manuel L. Real, Chief District Judge, Presiding.
Before KOZINSKI and THOMAS, Circuit Judges, and WHYTE, District Judge.
The Honorable Ronald M. Whyte, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
We have already held that Congress did not exceed the scope of its Commerce Clause authority in enacting 18 U.S.C. § 228. See United States v. Mussari, 95 F.3d 787, 790 (9th Cir.1996). "The obligation of a parent in one state to provide support for a child in a different state is ... a thing in interstate commerce and falls within the power of Congress to regulate." Id. (applying United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 558, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995)).
Nothing in United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d 658 (2000), changes this analysis. Morrison reaffirms the Lopez framework and does not address the basis for Commerce Clause jurisdiction at issue in Mussari, namely, the regulation of a thing in interstate commerce. See Morrison, 529 U.S. at 608-09 ("Petitioners do not contend that these cases fall within either of the first two of [Lopez's] categories of Commerce Clause regulation.").
AFFIRMED.