Extraterritorial Application Of Laws

United States v. Bellaizac-Hurtado, 700 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2012)

Article I, § 8, cl. 10 contains three separate provisions that empower Congress to write criminal laws extraterritorially: (1) the power to define and punish piracies; (2) the power to define and punish felonies committed on the high seas, and (3) the power to define and punish offenses against the law of nations. In this case, the court held that the offense of drug trafficking (an offense which in this case occurred in Panamanian waters) was not an offense that qualified as an offense “against the law of nations” and therefore was outside the scope of Congressional authority to enact. The court held that 46 U.S.C. § 70503, therefore, was unconstitutional.

United States v. Weingarten, 632 F.3d 60 (2d Cir. 2011)

18 U.S.C. § 2423(b) makes it a crime to travel in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The Second Circuit held that travel that has no connection to the United States, however, does not qualify. Thus, travel by an American citizen between two foreign countries would not be subject to § 2423.

United States v. Lopez-Vanegas, 493 F.3d 1305 (11th Cir. 2007)

Though the courts have applied the drug laws extraterritorially, there are limits. In this case, the defendants, while in Florida, discussed transporting cocaine from Colombia to France for distribution throughout Europe. There was no intention that the drugs ever come to (or through) the United States. The Eleventh Circuit held that the defendants could not be convicted in the United States of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. See also United States v. Benbow, 539 F.3d 1327 (11th Cir. 2008) (in a case somewhat similar to Lopez-Vanegas, it was reversible error to fail to instruct the jury that the government was required to prove that the defendant conspired to either possess, or distribute the drugs in the United States).