Cite as: 504 U. S. 255 (1992)
Thomas, J., dissenting
beside the point here—the critical inquiry for our purposes is the American understanding of the crime at the time the Hobbs Act was passed in 1946. Cf. Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U. S. 957, 975 (1991) (plurality opinion) (English historical background is relevant in determining the meaning of a constitutional provision, but the "ultimate question" is the meaning of that provision to the Americans who adopted it).
A survey of 19th- and early 20th-century cases construing state extortion statutes in light of the common law makes plain that the offense was understood to involve not merely a wrongful taking by a public official, but a wrongful taking under a false pretense of official right. A typical case is Collier v. State, 55 Ala. 125 (1877). The defendant there was a local prosecutor who, for a fee, had given legal advice to a criminal suspect. The Alabama Supreme Court rejected the State's contention that the defendant's receipt of the fee—even though improper—amounted to "extortion," because he had not taken the money "under color of his office." "The object of the [extortion] statute is . . . not the obtaining money by mere impropriety of conduct, or by fraud, by persons filling official position." Id., at 127. Rather, the court explained, "[a] taking under color of office is of the essence of the offense. The money or thing received must have been claimed, or accepted, in right of office, and the person paying must have been yielding to official authority." Id., at 128 (emphasis added). That a public official took money he was not due was not enough. "[T]hough the defendant may have been guilty of official infidelity, the wrong was to the State only, and no wrong was done the person paying the money. That wrong is not punishable under this indictment. Private and public wrong must concur, to constitute
robbery; for robbery is apparent, and hath the face of a crime, but extortion puts on the visure of virtue") (emphasis added).
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