RICO had a Birthday! A Fifty-Year Retrospective of Questions Answered and Open

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) came into the world in 1970, a time of great social upheaval that was accompanied by shifting attitudes towards both crime and civil litigation. From the outset, the statute’s complexity, ambiguity, and uncertain purpose have confounded courts and commentators. At least some doubts as to the statute’s meaning and application arise because it has criminal and civil components that subject it to the twin—yet antithetical—social impulses to be “tough on crime” while containing a perceived “litigation explosion.” In this Article, I situate RICO in this larger context and offer that context as a partial explanation of how RICO’s “meaning” has been shaped. Along the way, I synthesize many years of my own legal scholarship and litigation experience into a retrospective of where RICO interpretation and application have been—and where they still must go.