Domestic Terror Across State Lines: A Failed Federal Framework

University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 2023 Article 14 2024 Domestic Terror Across State Lines: A Failed Federal Framework Sophia Houdaigui Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Houdaigui, Sophia (2024) "Domestic Terror Across State Lines: A Failed Federal Framework," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2023, Article 14. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2023/iss1/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact . Domestic Terror Across State Lines: A Failed Federal Framework Sophia Houdaigui† ABSTRACT As white supremacist violence has substantially increased over the last two decades, calls to combat associated attacks have intensified. This Comment outlines the impact of the events of September 11, 2001 on domestic and international terrorism policy, contextualizing the subsequent invocation of international terrorism charges at significantly higher rates than those of domestic terrorism. It introduces the lack of a general criminal statute prohibiting acts of terrorism and discusses the issues associated with the varying definitions of domestic terrorism employed by the federal government. Due to the lack of common terminology in referencing domestic terrorism, a number of white supremacists who have crossed state borders to commit violent acts are prosecuted under federal hate crime and firearm laws. This lack of a consistent definition offers a corrigible reason why white supremacist organizations and supporters have largely circumvented prosecution under domestic terrorism charges. To properly address and regulate the interstate travel of individuals to commit white nationalist violence, the existing domestic terrorism statutory framework must be applied vigorously. This Comment argues that a consistent definition of “domestic terrorism” should be employed at the federal level in order to ensure that the statutory framework is enforced against perpetrators of such violent crimes. It ultimately concludes that a strengthened framework could lead to the regulation and subsequent prosecution of white supremacists who cross state lines to commit violent acts. I. INTRODUCTION On September 11, 2021, Joey David George called a cannabis dispensary in Rockville, Maryland from his home in Lynwood, Washing- † B.A., Barnard College of Columbia University, 2021; J.D. Candidate, The University of Chicago Law School, 2024. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Sarah Konsky for her invaluable guidance on this Comment and to Professor Saul Levmore for encouraging me to consider different prospectives. My appreciation extends to the editors and staff of the Legal Forum, with a special thank you to Paige Petrashko, Nick Riley, Eliza Martin, and Ellie Maltby for their support and insightful feedback. 363 364 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM [2023 ton.1 He employed racial slurs against the employees, threatening to shoot them and kill Black patrons of the business. That same day, George called a Denny’s restaurant in Enfield, Connecticut, and threatened Black individuals in the restaurant. In May 2022, he called a restaurant in San Bruno, California, and “allegedly threatened to shoot Black and Hispanic patrons in the restaurant.”2 On July 19, July 20, and again on July 21, 2022, George called multiple grocery stores in Buffalo, New York. On these phone calls, he expressly threatened to shoot Black patrons, telling the staff to “take him seriously” and ordering the store to clear out the customers as he was “nearby” and “preparing to shoot all Black customers.”3 Under the existing federal statutory framework, George’s threats are not considered attempted acts of domestic terrorism. Recently, Seth Jones, director of the database project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, declared that a significant threat facing the United States “is that the number of domestic terror plots and attacks are at the highest they have been in decades.”4 This consequential increase in domestic terrorist activity can be traced back to 2014, with approximately thirty-one fatalities occurring per year since then.5 Additionally, in 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) produced a report announcing that white supremacists posed a “persistent threat of lethal violence” to the United States.6 The report detailed that white supremacists had “produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000.”7 These fatalities “have [been] targeted [at] individuals because of their racial, ethnic, religious, or political makeup—such as African Americans, 1 Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Lynnwood, Washington Man Sentenced to Prison for Making Multiple Threatening Phone Calls to Businesses in Four States Espousing Racial Hatred (Dec. 16, 2022), https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/lynnwood-washington-man-sentencedprison-making-multiple-threatening-phone-calls [https://perma.cc/9Z8B-6CTX]. 2 Id. 3 Id. 4 Robert O’Harrow Jr. et al., The Rise of Domestic Extremism in America, WASH. POST (Apr. 12, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/domestic-terrorismdata/ [https://perma.cc/E3NF-NFE8]. 5 The Rise in Violence Against Minority Institutions: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Sec. of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 117th Cong. 53 (2022) [hereinafter Hearing] (statement of Seth G. Jones, Senior Vice President, Ctr. for Strategic and Int’l Studies). 6 FED. BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION & DEP’T OF HOMELAND SEC., IA-0154-17, WHITE SUPREMACIST EXTREMISM POSES PERSISTENT THREAT OF LETHAL VIOLENCE 1 (2017), https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3924852-White-Supremacist-Extremism-JIB.html [https://perma.cc/ZZ6Z-GUQR]. 7 Michael German, Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement, BRENNAN CTR. FOR JUST. (Aug. 27, 2020), https://www. brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-andfar-right-militancy-law#footnote3_y8zh2cz [https://perma.cc/N7Q8-YJ2E]. 363] DOMESTIC TERROR ACROSS STATE LINES 365 immigrants, Muslims, and Jews.”8 Federal officials have varied in their approach to prosecuting white supremacist violence,9 which seems to be exacerbated in instances where people cross state borders to commit violent acts. This inconsistent prosecutorial approach may be due, in large part, to the lack of a consistent definition of “domestic terrorism” at the federal level. While terrorism is not an explicit charge under federal law, Chapter 113B in Title 18 of the U.S. Code is intended to provide guidance for prosecuting terrorism.10 18 U.S.C. § 2331 offers broad definitions of international and domestic t (...truncated)