Tuesday audio. Court of Appeals papers due Monday.
Prep the remainder of Arising Under. We begin with the distinction among three things--legal rights, jurisdictional grants, and rights of action; what are the differences and how do they affect whether a claim arises under?
Consider the following, in light of Morrison:
The US prosecutes X for sex trafficking. The purported basis for jurisdiction is 18 U.S.C. § 3231, granting district courts original jurisdiction over "all offenses against the laws of the United States." The sex-trafficking statute requires that the defendant's actions be "in or affecting interstate commerce." The court determines that the use of money and a car manufactured in another state does not satisfy that requirement and so the prosecution must be dismissed. What is the basis for that dismissal?
