United States v. Ralph Tovar

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[PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 23-10755

____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

RALPH KEVIN TOVAR,

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Florida

D.C. Docket No. 1:22-cr-20205-DPG-1

____________________

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2 Opinion of the Court 23-10755

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and GRANT and LUCK, Circuit

Judges.

GRANT, Circuit Judge:

Ralph Tovar had quite the defense to charges of attempted

sex trafficking of a minor: Though he paid $550 in exchange for a

hotel key, he was not actually planning to have sex with the

thirteen-year-old and fifteen-year-old he thought were behind the

door. Instead, inspired by an action movie, he was going to “save”

the girls. As Tovar himself said on the stand, this was not “a well

thought-out plan.” Nor was it a well-thought-out defense. The

jury didn’t buy it and found him guilty—likely because of the

overwhelming evidence that he did, in fact, intend to purchase sex

with two underage girls.

Tovar now appeals, dropping the I-was-actually-saving-the-

girls argument and adding three new ones. First, he says that the

government did not sufficiently prove that his conduct was “in or

affecting” interstate commerce, as required by the child-sex-

trafficking statute. See 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1). Second, he contends

that the district court gave the jury an unlawful instruction. And

third, he accuses the government of engaging in prosecutorial

misconduct during its closing argument. But these new arguments

are no more successful than the original, and we affirm his

conviction.

I.

In early 2022, federal agents placed fake advertisements for

young girls on MegaPersonals, a website known for sex trafficking.

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Ralph Tovar responded to one such ad shortly after midnight,

texting that he was looking for a “unique experience.” When

agents did not immediately respond, Tovar tired of waiting and

called the number—no answer. Undeterred, he fired off another

text message at 2:01 a.m.: “Is those girls available sometime tonight

or tomorrow?” Still no reply. After waiting nine hours, he sent the

same message again.

Federal agents finally responded about three hours later,

explaining that they had “two young, beautiful girls available.”

One was fifteen and the other thirteen, they told him—but Tovar

did not object. To the contrary, he asked how late the girls would

be available and said he wanted to “make an appointment.” He

also requested photos and explained that he was interested in “two

girls at the same time.” The agents did not send the photos he

requested, but reiterated that the two girls were “15 years old and

13 years old” and reassured him that they were “super pretty and

are up for almost anything.” Tovar said okay and asked one more

question: “You are not working for the law or something. Right?”

To that the agents replied, “no, I take my business very serious so

you better not be a cop.”

Apparently satisfied, Tovar responded that he too was “not

a cop” and noted that he would “bring a lot of cash” to the meet-

up spot. Agents set the price at $400 an hour and added that the

girls would “do everything and anything but the 13-year-old doesn’t

do anal. Is that okay?” Tovar chided the agents for talking about

sex acts over text, but confirmed that he was “okay” with this

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restriction. He continued: “I might text from [a] different number

because you kind [of ] messed up by texting about anal. This is very

confidential because of their age already.”

Before switching to the new number, Tovar asked if there

were any extra “services” that he could buy for “more cash.”

Indeed there were—unprotected sex, anal sex (with the fifteen-

year-old), and pictures of the encounter were all on the table for an

extra $50 each. Tovar opted for all three. He confirmed that the

total price would be $550 and again reassured the federal agents

that he was “not a cop.”

Tovar and the agents planned to meet at 9 p.m. at a hotel in

Doral, Florida, and he stopped at a bank on the way to withdraw

the $550 he needed for sex and all the extras. Money in hand, Tovar

met with an undercover agent in the hotel parking lot. During their

conversation, the agent told him—again—that the girls were

thirteen and fifteen. Content, Tovar handed the agent $550 in

exchange for a hotel room key. Agents arrested him shortly after

the trade.

A grand jury indicted Tovar for two counts of attempted sex

trafficking of a minor and one count of attempted coercion and

enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. See 18 U.S.C.

§§ 1591(a)(1), (b)(1), (b)(2); 1594(a); 2422(b). He pleaded not guilty

and offered what we will generously call a creative defense: that his

actions were inspired by Liam Neeson’s character in the movie

Memory, and he was in fact trying to save the girls from true

predators. Tovar twice moved for a judgment of acquittal on the

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ground that the government did not prove that he knowingly

enticed or solicited the underage girls. The court denied the

motions and sent the case to the jury—guilty on all counts.

Tovar now appeals, making three arguments. First, he says

the district court erred in denying his renewed motion for a

judgment of acquittal because his conduct did not satisfy the

interstate-commerce element of the child-sex-trafficking statute.

See 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1). Second, he says the district court’s jury

instruction was plainly erroneous because it wrongly equated the

use of a facility of interstate commerce with per se satisfaction of

the interstate-commerce element in § 1591. Third, and finally, he

says the government committed prosecutorial misconduct in its

closing argument when it told the jury that the interstate-

commerce element was “really not in dispute” and so it was “not

something you have to decide.” We disagree three times over.

II.

The first question we consider here, whether Tovar acted “in

or affecting” interstate commerce, introduces a still earlier one:

should that challenge be reviewed de novo or for plain error? The

answer depends on whether the interstate-commerce element in

§ 1591(a)(1) is “jurisdictional”—that is, whether it “defines the

court’s authority to hear a given type of case.” See United States v.

Morton, 467 U.S. 822, 828 (1984). If the requirement is

jurisdictional, our review is de novo because a court is always

bound by its jurisdictional limitations. See United States v. Clay, 355

F.3d 1281, 1285–86 (11th Cir. 2004); Amaya-Artunduaga v. U.S. Att’y.

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Gen., 463 F.3d 1247, 1250 (11th Cir. 2006). If it is not, plain-error

review applies because Tovar failed to raise this objection in the

district court. See Alikhani v. United States, 200 F.3d 732, 734–35

(11th Cir. 2000).

Congress defines the subject-matter jurisdiction of the lower

federal courts by statute, and has given district courts jurisdiction

over “all offenses against the laws of the United States.” 18 U.S.C.

§ 3231; see United States v. Grimon, 923 F.3d 1302, 1305 (11th Cir.

2019); U.S. Const. art. III § 1. So long as an indictment “charges the

defendant with violating a valid federal statute,” it “invokes the

district court’s subject-matter jurisdiction.” United States v. Brown,

752 F.3d 1344, 1354 (11th Cir. 2014).

That rule seems straightforward enough, but for decades

courts “sometimes erroneously conflated” subject-matter

jurisdiction with the merits of the case, all too often treating the

“reach” of a statute as a jurisdictional question. See Arbaugh v. Y&H

Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 511 (2006) (quotation omitted); Morrison v. Nat’l

Australia Bank Ltd., 561 U.S. 247, 253–54 (2010). That move was

troubling—subject-matter jurisdiction “presents an issue quite

separate from the question whether the allegations the plaintiff

makes entitle him to relief.” Morrison, 561 U.S. at 254. So starting

in the early 2000s, the Supreme Court sought to discipline the

federal courts’ “less than meticulous” analysis when it came to

subject-matter jurisdiction. See Arbaugh, 546 U.S. at 511. To put an

end to these “drive-by jurisdictional rulings,” the Court adopted a

“readily administrable bright line”: “when Congress does not rank

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a statutory limitation on coverage as jurisdictional, courts should

treat the restriction as nonjurisdictional.” Id. at 511, 516 (quotation

omitted). Simply put, if Congress doesn’t say it is jurisdictional,

then it isn’t. See McIntosh v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 980, 987 (2024).

Applying that rule here, we have little difficulty concluding

that the interstate-commerce element in § 1591(a) is

nonjurisdictional. Congress did not count that element as a limit

on a federal court’s power to hear a given case. See Arbaugh, 546

U.S. at 516. Because the sex-trafficking statute, § 1591(a), “does not

expressly refer to subject-matter jurisdiction or speak in

jurisdictional terms,” it cannot be jurisdictional. See McIntosh, 144

S. Ct. at 987 (quotation omitted). Instead, § 1591(a) restricts the

statute’s substantive reach, imposing a limitation on what conduct

the statute covers. And “to ask what conduct” a statute covers “is

to ask what conduct [it] prohibits, which is a merits question.”

Morrison, 561 U.S. at 254. Section 1591(a) “does not speak in

jurisdictional terms or refer in any way to the jurisdiction of the

district courts.” See Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385,

394 (1982). That means the interstate-commerce question in any

§ 1591(a) case is not whether a federal court has the power to

adjudicate the dispute, but whether the statute covers the

defendant’s conduct.

That conclusion makes sense. The interstate-commerce

element in § 1591(a) does not strike at a federal court’s “power to

adjudicate” child-sex-trafficking cases. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a

Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 89 (1998) (emphasis deleted). Instead, it

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requires the government to prove an interstate-commerce nexus to

secure a conviction. If the government cannot do so, then the

defendant will be acquitted—but an acquittal does not strip the

federal courts of their ability to decide the case. See Alikhani, 200

F.3d at 735; Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154, 161 (2010)

(contrasting “true jurisdictional conditions” with

“nonjurisdictional limitations on causes of action”). The interstate-

commerce element gives Congress the power to regulate the

conduct, and the subject-matter jurisdiction statutes give federal

courts the power to decide the case. So “the question of who

should win under substantive law remains distinct from the court’s

adjudicative authority.” Howard M. Wasserman, The Demise of

“Drive-by Jurisdictional Rulings,” 105 Nw. U. L. Rev. 947, 950 (2011).

To hold otherwise for § 1591(a) would create great tension with the

“firmly established” rule in the civil context that “the absence of a

valid . . . cause of action does not implicate subject-matter

jurisdiction.” Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 89.

The mine run of our cases have come to the same

conclusion: “a district court faced with an insufficient interstate-

commerce nexus” does not lose “subject-matter jurisdiction of the

case.” See Alikhani, 200 F.3d at 735. Take United States v. Viscome,

144 F.3d 1365 (11th Cir. 1998). There, we point-blank stated that a

defendant’s challenge to “the sufficiency of the government’s

evidence regarding the interstate nexus element” was “non-

jurisdictional.” Id. at 1370. Or consider the half-century-old case

of United States v. Hyde, where Judge Wisdom repeatedly described

the interstate-commerce element in the Hobbs Act as a “statutory

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requirement.” See 448 F.2d 815, 836, 839, 842 (5th Cir. 1971). 1 He

explained that these requirements are important because they

enable Congress to declare that something “can be a federal

crime”—not because they divest federal courts of their jurisdiction.

See id. at 839 n.34.

To be sure, in Hyde and in other cases, we have sometimes

referred to an interstate-commerce requirement as a “jurisdictional

element” of an offense. See, e.g., id. at 839; United States v. McAllister,

77 F.3d 387, 390 (11th Cir. 1996). But an interstate-commerce

element is not “jurisdictional” in the sense of the word that matters

here—it says nothing about whether “the district court has subject

matter jurisdiction or authority to adjudicate the case.” Grimon,

923 F.3d at 1306.

So why do we belabor the point? The unhappy fact is that

our cases have not been consistent. We have sometimes mistakenly

suggested that a statutory interstate-commerce element strikes at

the federal courts’ subject-matter jurisdiction. In United States v.

Clay, for example, a panel of this Court reasoned that de novo

review on a challenge to the sufficiency of the interstate-commerce

evidence was required because “the ‘possess in or affecting

commerce’ portion of § 922(g)(1) is a jurisdictional element of that

criminal offense.” 355 F.3d at 1286.

1 Decisions of the former Fifth Circuit rendered prior to October 1, 1981, are

binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit. See Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661

F.2d 1206, 1207 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc).

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Other decisions from our Circuit can be read to support the

same proposition. We have suggested, for example, that an

interstate-commerce nexus was required to “establish jurisdiction.”

See United States v. Perrin, 580 F.2d 730, 735 (5th Cir. 1978). And we

have noted in passing that the government must provide sufficient

evidence that an interstate-commerce requirement was met “to

establish federal jurisdiction.” See United States v. Smith, 749 F.2d

1568, 1570 n.2 (11th Cir. 1985).

In a situation like this—where Circuit authority is in

conflict—“a panel should look to the line of authority containing

the earliest case because a decision of a prior panel cannot be

overturned by a later panel.” Arias v. Cameron, 776 F.3d 1262, 1273

n.8 (11th Cir. 2015). Here, the earliest case we can identify is Hyde,

in which Judge Wisdom explained that interstate-commerce

elements empower Congress, not enfeeble courts. See 448 F.2d at

839 n.34. They are what allow Congress to, for example, “declare

that common law extortion can be a federal crime,” or, as relevant

here, outlaw trafficking of children for sex. See id.; 18 U.S.C. § 1591.

Because the Hyde-Viscome-Alikhani line of precedent predates any

case holding that the government’s failure to prove an interstate-

commerce element divests a federal court of its subject-matter

jurisdiction, that line of precedent prevails. 2 See Arias, 776 F.3d at

2 There is at least a colorable argument that the Supreme Court’s clarity in

adopting the “bright line” that “when Congress does not rank a statutory

limitation on coverage as jurisdictional, courts should treat the restriction as

nonjurisdictional” means that cases like Clay, Perrin, and Smith are no longer

good law. See Arbaugh, 546 U.S. at 516. But we need not address that point

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1273 n.8. That means the interstate-commerce requirement here

is a statutory element that the government must prove to secure a

conviction—not a jurisdictional one that saps a federal court’s

authority to hear a case. Our review of Tovar’s challenge on that

front is therefore for plain error since he did not raise the issue in

the district court.3

III.

Preliminaries satisfied, we now review the in-or-affecting-

commerce question for plain error. To meet that standard, Tovar

must show that (1) an error occurred, (2) the error was obvious,

and (3) the error affected his substantial rights. See Rosales-Mireles

v. United States, 585 U.S. 129, 134–35 (2018). Even then, we exercise

our discretion to correct the error only if it seriously impaired the

“fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.”

Id. at 135 (quotation omitted).

Tovar says the government did not prove that his conduct

was “in or affecting” interstate commerce because he merely used

two facilities of interstate commerce. The phrase “in commerce”

refers to both the “channels within which people and goods move

through the flow of commerce” and the “instrumentalities used to

because there is no tension between the Court’s teachings and our prior-panel-

precedent rule in this case.

3 We reject Tovar’s alternative argument that we should review his challenge

de novo because he made a “general” challenge to the adequacy of the

evidence. Our Circuit has never adopted that rule, and we decline to do so

today. See United States v. Baston, 818 F.3d 651, 663–64 (11th Cir. 2016).

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facilitate that movement.” United States v. Ballinger, 395 F.3d 1218,

1233 (11th Cir. 2005) (en banc). These instrumentalities include

things like the internet and cell phones. See United States v.

Hornaday, 392 F.3d 1306, 1311 (11th Cir. 2004) (internet); United

States v. Evans, 476 F.3d 1176, 1180 (11th Cir. 2007) (cell phones).

Tovar used both when he tried to purchase sex with two minors.

True, neither Tovar nor his (fictional) intended victims ever

crossed state lines. But we have already said that “a defendant

whose illegal acts ultimately occur intrastate still acts ‘in

commerce’ if he uses the channels or instrumentalities of interstate

commerce to facilitate their commission.” See United States v.

Baston, 818 F.3d 651, 664 (11th Cir. 2016) (quotation omitted). And

Tovar’s use of the internet and his cell phone “facilitated” his

attempted trafficking because he needed these instrumentalities to

arrange the transaction—sex with a thirteen-year-old and a fifteen-

year-old. See id. He otherwise would never have seen the

advertisement in the first place, let alone have been in a position to

act on it. So by using these instrumentalities of interstate

commerce, he placed himself firmly “in commerce.” See id.

This conclusion is not a new one—our Court has all but said

so already. In United States v. Baston, another § 1591(a) case, the

defendant communicated with his victim “by phone, text message,

and Instagram”; “convinced her to cross state lines on a bus”;

“advertised her services” on a website known for sex trafficking;

and “stayed with her in various hotels.” Id. We explained that

“[a]ny one of these is sufficient to prove that Baston’s conduct was

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‘in commerce.’” Id. (emphasis added). Because Tovar concocted

his plan by text message, Baston governs, and that means his

conduct was “in commerce.”

Tovar insists that this part of Baston is mere dicta because the

facts there “clearly went beyond the defendant’s intrastate use of a

cellphone to communicate with the victim.” But nowhere does

Baston suggest that its holding is so limited. At the very least, the

quoted language is an alternative holding—and it is “well-

established in this Circuit that alternative holdings are as binding as

solitary holdings.” United States v. Files, 63 F.4th 920, 926 (11th Cir.

2023) (quotation omitted).

On top of all that, consider United States v. Evans, where we

said that a defendant’s use of a cell phone “alone, even without

evidence that the calls he made were routed through an interstate

system,” was sufficient to satisfy a similar statute’s interstate-

commerce requirement. 476 F.3d at 1180–81. And we are not alone

in that view—several of our sister circuits agree that the intrastate

use of a telephone is enough to meet a statute’s interstate-

commerce element. See, e.g., United States v. Gilbert, 181 F.3d 152,

158–59 (1st Cir. 1999); United States v. Weathers, 169 F.3d 336, 341–

42 (6th Cir. 1999). In short, because Tovar used both his cell phone

and the internet to arrange sex with minors, his conduct qualifies

as “in commerce”—whether or not he or the victims physically

crossed state lines. No error means no plain error, and we reject

Tovar’s interstate-commerce challenge.

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IV.

Tovar next objects that the district court’s jury instruction

wrongly treated the use of a facility of interstate commerce as

satisfying the interstate-commerce element. Not so.

After giving the standard pattern jury instruction for § 1591,

the district court added a modified instruction aimed at clarifying

the lack of scienter requirement for the interstate-commerce

element. It instructed the jury that “the Government need not

prove that the Defendant knew his conduct involved the use of any

facilities of interstate commerce and hence occurred ‘in’ interstate

commerce or that he knew that his conduct would ‘affect’

interstate commerce. It is sufficient that the Government prove

that the Defendant’s conduct did in fact occur ‘in’ interstate

commerce or that the natural consequences of the Defendant’s

conduct would ‘affect’ interstate commerce” (emphasis added).

When asked if there was “any objection” to this language at trial,

Tovar said no.

He has now changed his mind. To Tovar, the instruction was

erroneous because by using the phrase “and hence” it ever so subtly

equated the use of interstate-commerce facilities with “per se

satisfaction of ” § 1591(a)(1)’s interstate-commerce element.

Because Tovar accepted this jury instruction at trial, our review is

again for plain error. See Rosales-Mireles, 585 U.S. at 134–35. But

again there is no error at all.

As we have just explained, our decisions in Baston and Evans

are best read to decide that a defendant’s intrastate crimes qualify

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as “in commerce” when he uses the instrumentalities of interstate

commerce to facilitate their commission. See Baston, 818 F.3d at

664; Evans, 476 F.3d at 1180–81. The jury instruction aligns with

that principle.

V.

Finally, Tovar says the government committed prosecutorial

misconduct in its closing statement by taking a crucial issue off the

table. Again we disagree.

The heart of the dispute at trial was whether Tovar acted

“knowingly.” Was his plan to have sex with the underage girls, or

to save them? Before addressing that issue during its closing

argument, the government stated that “there are many things that

are really not in dispute in this case. One of them is the part about

interstate commerce that you heard earlier. You have seen a

stipulation to that. You have seen and heard ample evidence that a

cell phone was used in all of these communications so that is not

something you have to decide.” So, the government continued, the

“only thing left” for the jury to decide was whether Tovar “knew

what he was doing and intended to follow through with the sex

act.”

Tovar now accuses the government of misconduct by

misleading the jury into thinking that he stipulated away the

interstate-commerce element in § 1591(a)(1) when, in fact, he

stipulated only that he used two instrumentalities of interstate

commerce. Tovar did not make this objection at trial, so our review

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is once again for plain error. See Rosales-Mireles, 585 U.S. at 134–35.

Once again, we find none.

To start, the government did not say that Tovar conceded

that the interstate-commerce element in § 1591(a)(1) was met.

What it did say was that the element was “really not in dispute”—

which it was not. After all, Tovar stipulated that he used two

facilities of interstate commerce, and there was “ample evidence

that a cell phone was used.” So as a practical matter, the interstate-

commerce question was irrelevant at the trial—the crux of the case

was whether Tovar intended to save the girls or to have sex with

them. There was never any suggestion that the interstate-

commerce element in § 1591(a)(1) had not been met as a factual

matter. In the end, the interstate-commerce part of the case was—

for lack of a better phrase—“really not in dispute.”

But even if part of the closing argument was improper,

“relief is available to rectify only plain error that is so obvious that

failure to correct it would jeopardize the fairness and integrity of

the trial.” United States v. Feldman, 936 F.3d 1288, 1302 (11th Cir.

2019) (quotation omitted). Tovar cannot meet that bar. He cannot

show “a reasonable probability that, but for the remarks, the

outcome of the trial would have been different” because the

government presented uncontested evidence at trial that Tovar

used two instrumentalities of interstate commerce, withdrew

money from a bank to pay for underage sex, and was arrested in a

hotel parking lot after receiving a room key. Id. That evidence was

more than sufficient for a jury to conclude that Tovar’s crimes were

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“in or affecting” interstate commerce. And besides, the judge

instructed the jury that “what the attorneys say” during closing

arguments “is not evidence and you should not consider it as

evidence.” An instruction like that one “helps to mitigate the risk

that the jury may have been misled by the government’s

statements.” United States v. Maradiaga, 987 F.3d 1315, 1326 (11th

Cir. 2021).

* * *

Thankfully the girls targeted by Tovar were not real—

though plenty of victims are. The evidence plainly showed what

Tovar intended to do, and that his actions occurred in interstate

commerce. A jury believed that evidence. Because Tovar cannot

show that his trial was infected with any plain error, we AFFIRM.