Rewis v. United States

Background

James Rewis and Mary Lee Williams, two Florida residents, ran a small numbers lottery in Yulee, Florida near the Georgia border. Two Georgia residents traveled to their place to place bets. A jury convicted Rewis and Williams under the federal Travel Act, which bars interstate travel that furthers certain illegal businesses, and a federal appeals court upheld the convictions for the operators even after reversing the customers’ convictions.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether simply operating a gambling business that out‑of‑state customers visit violates the Travel Act. The Court said the statute’s words about promoting, managing, or facilitating unlawful activity require more than the mere fact that customers cross state lines to patronize the business. Legislative history showed Congress aimed the law at organized crime and operators who run or manage illegal activity across state lines. The Court rejected the government’s idea that mere foreseeability of out‑of‑state customers creates liability, though it allowed that active efforts to solicit interstate patronage might, in some cases, support a conviction. Here, the jury was not instructed to find active solicitation and there was no evidence the operators sought interstate customers.

Real world impact

The Court reversed these convictions because the evidence did not show active encouragement of interstate patronage. The opinion limits automatic federal exposure for local businesses simply visited by out‑of‑state customers, and emphasizes that prosecutors must show more than chance patronage when using the Travel Act.