Cite as: 504 U. S. 255 (1992)
Thomas, J., dissenting
looking the traditional meaning of "under color of official right," Kenny obliterated the distinction between extortion and bribery, essentially creating a new crime encompassing both.
"As effectively as if there were federal common law crimes, the court in Kenny . . . amend[ed] the Hobbs Act and [brought] into existence a new crime—local bribery affecting interstate commerce. Hereafter, for purposes of Hobbs Act prosecutions, such bribery was to be called extortion. The federal policing of state corruption had begun." J. Noonan, Bribes 586 (1984).
After Kenny, federal prosecutors came to view the Hobbs Act as a license for ferreting out all wrongdoing at the state and local level—" 'a special code of integrity for public officials.' " United States v. O'Grady, 742 F. 2d 682, 694 (CA2 1984) (en banc) (quoting letter from Raymond J. Dearie, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, dated Jan. 21, 1983). In short order, most other Circuits followed Kenny's lead and upheld, based on a bribery rationale, the Hobbs Act extortion convictions of an astonishing variety of state and local officials, from a State Governor, see United States v. Hall, 536 F. 2d 313, 320-321 (CA10), cert. denied, 429 U. S. 919 (1976), down to a local policeman, see United States v. Braasch, 505 F. 2d 139, 151 (CA7 1974), cert. denied, 421 U. S. 910 (1975).
Our precedents, to be sure, suggest that Congress enjoys broad constitutional power to legislate in areas traditionally regulated by the States—power that apparently extends even to the direct regulation of the qualifications, tenure, and conduct of state governmental officials. See, e. g., Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U. S. 528, 547-554 (1985). As we emphasized only last Term, however, concerns of federalism require us to give a narrow construction to federal legislation in such sensitive areas unless
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