Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2011
Journal Title
Tulane Law Review
ISSN
0041-3992
Abstract
The complicated structure of the Racketeer and Corrupt Organization Act has bedeviled courts courts and litigants since its adoption four decades ago. Two questions have recurred with some frequency. First, is victim reliance an element of a civil RICO claim predicated on allegations of fraud? Second, what is the difference between an illegal association-in-fact and an ordinary civil conspiracy? In a series of three recent cases, the United States Supreme Court brought much needed clarity to the first question. But in another recent case, the Court upended decades of circuit-court precedent holding that an actionable association-in-fact must be embody a set of structural attributes that would not ordinarily be present in a conspiracy. This Article analyzes these new cases, puts them in historical context, and discusses their likely ramifications for civil RICO litigation.
First Page
677
Last Page
716
Num Pages
40
Volume Number
85
Issue Number
3
Publisher
Tulane University School of Law
Recommended Citation
Randy D. Gordon,
Clarity and Confusion: RICO's Recent Trips to the United States Supreme Court,
85
Tulane L. Rev.
677
(2011).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1038