U.S. Supreme Court
High Court: Enterprise Without Name, Dues or Rules Can Still Be Illegal
Posted Jun 8, 2009, 10:44 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a criminal enterprise doesn’t need to be a formal business-like entity to support a conviction under the anti-racketeering law.
The 7-2 ruling upheld the conviction of a defendant who was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for participating in a group that robbed night deposit boxes, the Associated Press reports.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the majority decision (PDF). He said the defendant's group was “loosely and informally organized,” but it nonetheless assigned roles to the robbery participants and generally split the proceeds. The group did not need to be a business-like entity to support a conviction, he said.
“Such a group need not have a hierarchical structure or a ‘chain of command’; decisions may be made on an ad hoc basis and by any number of methods—by majority vote, consensus, a show of strength, etc. Members of the group need not have fixed roles; different members may perform different roles at different times,” Alito wrote.
Additionally, Alito noted that, "The group need not have a name, regular meetings, dues, established rules and regulations, disciplinary procedures, or induction or initiation ceremonies."
SCOTUSblog says the ruling narrowed the anti-racketeering law by specifying when an informal organization constitutes an “enterprise.” The individual members must have a purpose, a relationship with each other, and operate to pursue the group's purpose, the blog says.
The case is Boyle v. United States.
Updated at 12:25 p.m. CT to include information from SCOTUSblog.