Whether the government can obtain a RICO conviction without proving the targeted enterprise's activities affected interstate commerce, if members engaged in a class of activity recognized to substantially affect interstate commerce in the aggregate

QUESTION PRESENTED The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) contains a jurisdictional element requiring prosecutors to prove in each case that the charged criminal enterprise either engaged in, or that its activities affected, interstate commerce. In this case—a federal prosecution of a neighborhood gang—the government did not allege that the group engaged in interstate commerce, nor did it present any evidence showing that the group’s activities affected interstate commerce either. Nonetheless, the Court of Appeals affirmed the gang members’ RICO convictions, holding that since some members engaged in frequent street-level drug dealing, the jury could simply assume that the group’s activities had the requisite interstate effect. Citing this Court’s decision in Taylor v. United States, 579 U.S. 301 (2016), the panel hinged its determination on this Court’s prior holding that “[d]rug-trafficking is a type of economic activity that has been recognized to substantially affect interstate commerce in the aggregate.” United States v. McClaren, 13 F.4th 386, 402 (5th Cir. 2021) (emphasis added). Thus, the question presented is: Can the government obtain a conviction under RICO without proving that the targeted enterprise’s activities actually affected interstate commerce, so long as enterprise members engaged in a class of activity that has been recognized to substantially affect interstate commerce in the aggregate? ii