In Perez v. United States, 402 U.S. 146, 91 S.Ct. 1357, 28 L.Ed.2d 686 (1971), the defendant attacked the constitutionality of the Extortionate Credit Act on the grounds that Congress had no power under the Commerce Clause to make a federal offense of purely intrastate activity. As previously pointed out, the statute makes it unnecessary to prove the use of interstate facilities or any effect on interstate commerce. Justice Douglas, writing for the majority, declined to read into the statute any jurisdictional requirements concerning the effect on interstate commerce and upheld the statute on the basis of Congressional findings that, as a class of activities, extortionate credit transactions have an inherent impact on interstate commerce. Extortion "in its national setting is one way organized interstate crime holds its guns to the heads of the poor and the rich alike and syphons funds from numerous localities to finance its national operations." Justice Stewart dissented "because I am unable to discern any rational distinction between loansharking and other local crime," concluding that "the definition and prosecution of local, intrastate crime are reserved to the states under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments."