dissenting.
When the defendant took the’ car keys from his victim, Pamela Croaker, Ms. Croak-er’s car was, in city terms, a block away, up the hill, out of sight. Under these circumstances, I would join an opinion upholding Lake’s conviction for “keyjacking,” or for both key robbery and grand larceny. I cannot, however, agree that he is guilty of carjacking. The majority draws upon federal robbery statutes to explicate how the vehicle (as opposed to its keys) may be considered to have been taken from the “person or presence of the victim.” Disciples of the jurisprudence of pure reason may, in analytic terms, find this approach convincing. As I will explain below, I do not. At all events, my polestar is the plain meaning of words, and in my lexicon, Ms. Croaker’s car cannot fairly be said to have been taken from her person or presence, hence I respectfully dissent.
The robbery statutes upon which the carjacking statute is based do not themselves define the phrase “from the person or presence of the victim.” Webster’s New International Dictionary defines presence as “the vicinity of, or area immediately near one.” However, rather than relying on the plain meaning, the majority turns to a construction of the phrase “person or presence” adopted by the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Burns, 701 F.2d 840 (9th Cir.1983), where, in construing a federal robbery statute, that court reasoned that “property is in the presence of a person if it is ‘so within his reach, inspection, observation or control, that he could if not overcome by violence or prevented by fear, retain his possession of it.’ ” Id. at 843. Based on this definition, the majority concludes that a rational jury “could infer that Croaker hesitated before pursuing Lake due to fear and that if she had not hesitated she could have reached the parking area in time to prevent Lake from taking her car without employing further force, violence, or *276intimidation.” Maj. Op. at 273. This proves too much. If it is true that had Croaker not hesitated out of fear she could have followed Lake up the steep path leading from the secluded beach to the road, then it is equally true (barring physical limitations) that she could have followed him up that path and then halfway across St. Thomas. The fact that Croaker’s ear was nearby is thus not relevant; if she could have followed Lake up the hill, she could have followed him anywhere. I am aware, of course, that the craft of judging requires line-drawing, but I simply do not see how that endeavor can be principled when it is predicated on open-ended definitions of key statutory terms, especially where those terms admit of plain meaning.
The majority’s reliance on a car robbery case to show that the evidence was sufficient to convict Lake of carjacking is of particular interest to me since, coupled with the typical fact pattern in federal carjacking cases, it strengthens my view that my dissent in United States v. Bishop, 66 F.3d 569 (3d. Cir.1995), was correct when it reasoned that the federal eaqacking statute should be declared unconstitutional under the authority of United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995). The principal basis on which the Bishop majority found the carjacking statute to be a valid exercise of the interstate commerce power was the belief that carjacking is an adjunct of the interstate business of auto theft, in which the stolen vehicle is destined for a “chop shop.” The majority adverted to references in the legislative history labeling carjacking as part of an economic enterprise in which profit is derived from the resale of stolen vehicles or their parts.1 In contrast, almost every carjacking case that I have seen or read about in the last several years — and there have been many — -is a violent robbery in which the perpetrator has not even the remotest connection to a car theft ring or a chop shop.2 The “effect on interstate commerce” underpinning of the carjacking statute is thus a chimera, and I hope that the Supreme Court will take up this issue before too long.3
.Other courts of appeals have cited as additional bases for concluding that § 2119 is within Congress' power to regulate commerce that automobiles are instrumentalities of interstate commerce and that the statute has a "jurisdictional hook” (i.e., that it only applies to the forcible taking of a car "that has been transported, shipped, or received in interstate or foreign commerce.”). See e.g., United States v. Romero, 122 F.3d 1334 (10th Cir.1997); United States v. McHenry, 97 F.3d 125 (6th Cir.1996); United States v. Oliver, 60 F.3d 547 (9th Cir.1995), aff'd on resentencing, 116 F.3d 1487 (9th Cir.1997), cert. granted sub nom., Jones v. United States, — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 1405, 140 L.Ed.2d 644 (1998). For the reasons set out in my dissent in Bishop, I find these justifications unconvincing.
. Indeed, the facts of the instant case are amongst the least egregious that I have seen where carjacking, is alleged. That is probably because, as I have explained, this case does not involve a carjacking nor, for that matter, a car robbery.
. In my view, carjacking cases are local crimes which belong in, state courts not federal courts. See Judicial Conference of the United States, Long Range Plan for the Federal Courts 24 (Dec. 1995) (Congress should be encouraged to allocate criminal jurisdiction to the federal courts only in limited situations; such a situation is not present where criminal activity has "some minor connection with and effect on interstate commerce”. ).