§ 1951, is a United States federal law enacted in 1946 that prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion that affects interstate or foreign commerce, as well as conspiracies to do so.

[1][clarification needed] (a) Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

[2]In interpreting the Hobbs Act, the Supreme Court has held that the statute employs the fullest extent of federal authority under the Commerce Clause.

Representatively, the Second Circuit reasoned in United States v. Perrotta (2002)[3] that making no distinction between individuals and businesses would bring under the ambit of the Hobbs Act every conceivable robbery or extortion.

On June 26, 2013, in Sekhar v. United States,[10] the Court ruled that threats to a public official in order to get him to use his non-transferable property (in this case, a general counsel's recommendation to a government official with respect to approving an investment) in a certain way did not constitute "the obtaining of property from another" within the meaning of the Act.