18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B) prohibits the possession of sexually explicit depictions of minors if those depictions or the materials used to produce them were shipped in interstate commerce.

Defendant Kallestad was found in possession of nude photos and films of minors. The photos aand films were made at his home in Texas and the film used by defendant was manufactured outside of Texas.

The Court summarily rejected Kallestad's argument that the statute at issues exceeded the authority of Congress under the Commerce Clause. Relying on the three categories of activity that Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause, as laid out in U.S. v. Morrison, 120 S.Ct. 1740 (2000), the Court noted that the statute "represents Congressional regulation of an item bound up with interstate attributes."

The Fifth Circuit cited the Meese Commission and its findings that "child pornography is a growing, predatory business that exploits and injures the most vulnerable among us," and conclude that an interstate market existed.

In deciding whether Congress could have rationally determined that it must reach local, intrastate conduct in order to effectively regulate a national, interstate market, the Court noted that (absent law enforcement officials intercepting child pornography en route), "Child pornography does not customarily bear a label identifying the state in which it was produced. For that reason, Congress could rationally determine that banning purely local possession was a necessary adjunct to its effort to ban interstate traffic."