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Three-judge Sixth Circuit panel grapples over whether it's a federal crime to commit murder in a national forest

Three-judge Sixth Circuit panel grapples over whether it's a federal crime to commit murder in a national forest: For the second time in 20 days, a federal appellate court has issued a ruling addressing whether the federal courts have jurisdiction over murders committed in a national forest.

Late last month, a three-judge Tenth Circuit panel issued a lengthy ruling addressing and rejecting a federal death row inmate's challenge to the exercise of federal jurisdiction over a double-murder committed at the Ouachita National Forest in Oklahoma. My earlier coverage of that ruling appears here.

Today, a three-judge Sixth Circuit panel splits 2-1 -- with each judge on the panel writing separately -- over whether a murder committed in the Manistee National Forest in Michigan can be prosecuted as a federal offense. The majority answers "yes" in a decision that you can access here. Senior Circuit Judge Gilbert S. Merritt's dissenting opinion begins:

Although it may seem at first glance somewhat counterintuitive to say that the federal courts do not have general or plenary subject matter jurisdiction over murder and other crimes in the national forests, that is, in fact, the situation. That is the situation because our system of federalism requires that Congress act by clear positive legislation to create such criminal jurisdiction, and Congress has not done so. There is no common-law, federal criminal, subject-matter jurisdiction in national forests or elsewhere, and this concept has been a part of our system of checks and balances limiting the power of the federal government from the beginning.

I'll leave it up to others to speculate over whether the recent issuance of these two appellate court rulings indicate that national forests are especially dangerous places to visit.

Full post as published by How Appealing on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).