Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn (23-365)
argument 23-365Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 8m
8 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the Court’s definition of “injury” under the RICO business‑or‑property requirement?
You'll hear argument first this morning in case twenty three three six six six six six five, medical marijuana versus horn. Ms. Blatt?
Thank you, and may it please the court. RICO states that any person injured in his business or property by reason of racketeering can sue, therefore, and recover threefold the damages he sustains. Because RICO's cause of action excludes personal injuries, RICO excludes damages resulting from personal injuries. The text differentiates the injury from racketeering and the damages sustained from that injury. thus showing that injury and damages are distinct. And the references to damages he sustains shows that damages are the losses suffered as a result of the injury. Damages are not themselves the injury inflicted by the defendant. This distinction tracks this Court's recognition that lost wages and medical expenses are classic damages from personal injuries.
Respondent's complaint alleges the personal injury of an unwanted ingestion of THC and the resulting damages of lost wages. To quote the complaint. Defendant's behavior caused plaintiffs physical harm in the ingestion of Dixie, and as a direct result of consuming this product, he was dismissed from his employment. That's a personal injury claim outside Civil Rico. Responded argues that every economic loss is its own RICO injury, but not to worry, because RICO still bars non pecuniary damages. But that view conflates injury and damages by treating Rico's exclusion of personal injuries as just excluding a narrow type of damages pain and suffering and emotional distress. Respondents rule also leaves the personal exclusion toothless, since virtually all personal injuries result in monetary loss.
It is utterly implausible that Congress federalized every slip and fall involving RICO predicates. Personal injuries are serious and may support state tort tort claims, but they are not the stuff of RICO. I welcome questions.
What does it uh mean to be injured someone to be injured in his business?
The court in in the Clayton Act case of Ryder talked about with injury to business and it was referring to any time a commercial enterprise suffers any monetary loss, it would be both a right a injury to both business and property, a right to carry on business. Now, the lower courts pre-RECO under the Clayton Act have also recognized that an employee has a business, kind of a right to carry on in his employment, and we haven't contested the city. Yeah. So in those cases if you conspired to prevent in those cases they involved an encyclopedic salesmen, deprived those people of their right to carry on their profession as a salesman, the the lower courts recognize that that was an injury to business.
So it is a right to carry on, you know, a profession or your commercial enterprise.
Can loss of uh employment ever constitute uh injury in business?
Well it's it certainly does in the Clayton Act and the example I can think of, the only example that readily comes to mind in RICO would be the human trafficking cases where a person is forced to work against their will and the uh there's an injury in your right to get uh you know the the the the payment for your uh performed work. So that would be an injury, a direct injury to one's business. And that human trafficking. It's hard to see how it would otherwise come up unless you defrauded someone into quitting their job, but generally lost wages are uh pretty standard prototypical damages from personal injury.
Ms Platt, you're raising an example that leads me to think that what you're really arguing about is proximate cause. meaning and not really whether personal injury is recoverable or not, it is under by your own admission certain circumstances. And in your brief you list a bunch of examples that seem to me quintessential personal injuries. But you related them to the business loss. and then said those were recoverable. So personal. A mob can threaten a store owner um to take over his business and if he doesn't injure him and he Can't recover. But if they put
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Court’s definition of “injury” under the RICO business‑or‑property requirement?
0:00–10:17
2
How do the parties distinguish between personal injury damages and RICO‑recoverable damages?
10:17–18:20
3
Why is proximate cause a central issue in the Medical Marijuana v. Horn case?
18:20–25:52
4
Can lost wages and medical expenses be characterized as a business injury for RICO purposes?
25:52–32:44
5
What role do the Clayton Act and prior RICO cases play in interpreting the statute?
32:44–42:41
6
Do the liberal‑construction canon and federalism concerns limit the reach of civil RICO?
42:41–51:18
7
How do the hypothetical car‑wash and kidnapping scenarios illustrate the injury analysis?
51:18–1:00:28
8
What are the practical implications of the Court’s ruling for future tort and product‑liability claims?
1:00:28–1:08:17