United States v. Taylor

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2021 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.

The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been

prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.

See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 20–1459. Argued December 7, 2021—Decided June 21, 2022

For his participation in an unsuccessful robbery during which his accom-

plice shot a man, respondent Justin Taylor faced charges of violating

the Hobbs Act, 18 U. S. C. §1951(a), and of committing a “crime of vio-

lence” under §924(c). The Hobbs Act makes it a federal crime to com-

mit, attempt to commit, or conspire to commit a robbery with an inter-

state component. §1951(a). Section 924(c) authorizes enhanced

punishments for those who use a firearm in connection with a “crime

of violence” as defined in either §924(c)(3)(A)—known as the elements

clause—or §924(c)(3)(B)—known as the residual clause. Before the

District Court, the government argued that Taylor’s Hobbs Act offense

qualified as a “crime of violence” under §924(c). Taylor ultimately

pleaded guilty to one count each of violating the Hobbs Act and §924(c).

The District Court sentenced Taylor to 30 years in federal prison—a

decade more than the maximum sentence for his Hobbs Act conviction

alone. Taylor later filed a federal habeas petition focused on his

§924(c) conviction, which was predicated on his admission that he had

committed both conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and at-

tempted Hobbs Act robbery. Taylor argued neither Hobbes Act offense

qualified as a “crime of violence” for purposes of §924(c) after United

States v. Davis, 588 U. S. ___. In Davis, this Court held that

§924(c)(3)(B)’s residual clause was unconstitutionally vague. Id., at

___–___. In his habeas proceeding, Taylor asked the court to apply

Davis retroactively and vacate his §924(c) conviction and sentence.

The government maintained that Taylor’s §924(c) conviction and sen-

tence remained sound because his crime of attempted Hobbs Act rob-

bery qualifies as a crime of violence under the elements clause. The

Fourth Circuit held that attempted Hobbs Act robbery does not qualify

as a crime of violence under §924(c)(3)(A). The Fourth Circuit vacated

2 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Syllabus

Taylor’s §924(c) conviction and remanded the case for resentencing. In

reaching its judgment, the Fourth Circuit noted that other courts have

held that attempted Hobbs Act robbery does qualify as a crime of vio-

lence under the elements clause.

Held: Attempted Hobbs Act robbery does not qualify as a “crime of vio-

lence” under §924(c)(3)(A) because no element of the offense requires

proof that the defendant used, attempted to use, or threatened to use

force. Pp. 3–13.

(a) The Court applies a “categorical approach” to determine whether

a federal felony may serve as a predicate for a conviction and sentence

under the elements clause, which poses the question whether the fed-

eral felony in question “has as an element the use, attempted use, or

threatened use of physical force.” §924(c)(3)(A) (emphasis added). The

relevant inquiry is not how any particular defendant may commit the

crime but whether the federal felony at issue always requires the gov-

ernment to prove—beyond a reasonable doubt, as an element of its

case—the use, attempted use, or threatened use of force. This Court

has long understood similarly worded statutes to demand similarly

categorical inquiries. See, e.g., Borden v. United States, 593 U. S. ___,

___.

An attempted Hobbs Act robbery does not satisfy the elements

clause. To secure a conviction for attempted Hobbs Act robbery, the

government must prove that the defendant intended to complete the

offense and that the defendant completed a “substantial step” toward

that end. See, e.g., United States v. Resendiz-Ponce, 549 U. S. 102, 107.

An intention is just that, no more. And whatever a substantial step

requires, it does not require the government to prove that the defend-

ant used, attempted to use, or even threatened to use force against

another person or his property—even if the facts would allow the gov-

ernment to do so in many cases. As the Model Penal Code explains

with respect to the Hobbs Act’s common-law robbery analogue, “there

will be cases, appropriately reached by a charge of attempted robbery,

where the actor does not actually harm anyone or even threaten

harm.” ALI, Model Penal Code §222.1, p. 114. But no element of at-

tempted Hobbs Act robbery requires proof that the defendant used,

attempted to use, or threatened to use force. Pp. 3–6.

(b) The government’s countervailing arguments fail. Pp. 6–13.

(1) The government first argues that the elements clause encom-

passes not only any offense that qualifies as a “crime of violence” but

also any attempt to commit such a crime. But the elements clause only

asks whether the defendant did commit a crime of violence as defined

by the statute. Pp. 6–7.

(2) The government next argues that the “substantial step” ele-

ment of attempted Hobbs Act robbery categorically requires it to prove

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 3

Syllabus

that a defendant used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical

force. But while many who commit the crime of attempted Hobbs Act

robbery do use, attempt to use, or threaten to use force, the govern-

ment’s problem is that no element of attempted Hobbs Act robbery re-

quires the government to prove such facts beyond a reasonable doubt.

The government maintains that anyone who takes a substantial step

toward completing Hobbs Act robbery always or categorically poses a

“threatened use” of force because the word “threat” can be used to

speak of an abstract risk. The government submits that the elements

clause uses the term to require only an objective, if uncommunicated,

threat to community peace and order. But when Congress uses the

word “threat” in such an abstract and predictive (rather than commu-

nicative) sense, it usually makes its point plain. The textual clues in

the statute point in the opposite direction of the government’s reading.

Moreover, the government’s view of the elements clause would have it

effectively replicate the work formerly performed by the residual

clause. Under usual rules of statutory interpretation, the Court does

not lightly assume Congress adopts two separate clauses in the same

law to perform the same work. See, e.g., Mackey v. Lanier Collection

Agency & Service, Inc., 486 U. S. 825, 839, n. 14. Pp. 7–10.

(3) The government’s final theory accepts that a conviction under

the elements clause requires a communicated threat of force and con-

tends that most attempted Hobbs Act robbery prosecutions involve ex-

actly that. But whatever this argument proves, the theory cannot be

squared with the statute’s terms. Congress in the elements clause did

not mandate an empirical inquiry into how crimes are usually commit-

ted, let alone impose a burden on the defendant to present proof about

the government’s own prosecutorial habits. Attempted Hobbs Act rob-

bery does not categorically require proof of the elements § 924(c)(3)(A)

demands. That ends the inquiry, and nothing in Gonzales v. Duenas-

Alvarez, 549 U. S. 183, suggests otherwise. Pp. 10–13.

979 F. 3d 203, affirmed.

GORSUCH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,

C. J., and BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ.,

joined. THOMAS, J., and ALITO, J., filed dissenting opinions.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to

notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-

ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that

corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

No. 20–1459

_________________

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER v. JUSTIN

EUGENE TAYLOR

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

[June 21, 2022]

JUSTICE GORSUCH delivered the opinion of the Court.

Does attempted Hobbs Act robbery qualify as a “crime of

violence” under 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(3)(A)? The answer mat-

ters because a person convicted of attempted Hobbs Act rob-

bery alone normally faces up to 20 years in prison. But if

that offense qualifies as a “crime of violence” under

§ 924(c)(3)(A), the same individual may face a second felony

conviction and years or decades of further imprisonment.

I

After a robbery went awry and his accomplice shot a man,

the federal government charged Justin Taylor with violat-

ing the Hobbs Act and § 924(c). The Hobbs Act makes it a

federal crime to commit, attempt to commit, or conspire to

commit a robbery with an interstate component. 18 U. S. C.

§ 1951(a). Meanwhile, § 924(c) authorizes further punish-

ments for those who use a firearm in connection with a

“crime of violence.”

For purposes of § 924(c), a federal felony qualifies as a

“crime of violence” if it meets either of two definitions. The

first definition is found in § 924(c)(3)(A), a provision some-

2 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

times called the elements clause. That clause covers of-

fenses that “ha[ve] as an element the use, attempted use, or

threatened use of physical force against the person or prop-

erty of another.” The second definition, located next door in

§ 924(c)(3)(B) and often referred to as the residual clause,

encompasses offenses that “by [their] nature, involv[e ] a

substantial risk that physical force . . . may be used.”

Before the District Court, the government argued that

Mr. Taylor’s Hobbs Act offense qualified as a “crime of vio-

lence” under these definitions. And at that point, Mr. Tay-

lor did not disagree, choosing instead to plead guilty to one

count each of violating the Hobbs Act and § 924(c). For his

crimes, the District Court sentenced Mr. Taylor to 30 years

in federal prison—a decade more than he could have re-

ceived for his Hobbs Act conviction alone.

Later, Mr. Taylor filed a federal habeas petition. In it, he

did not challenge his Hobbs Act conviction. Instead, he fo-

cused on § 924(c). Mr. Taylor submitted that his § 924(c)

conviction was predicated on his admission that he had

committed both conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery

and attempted Hobbs Act robbery. And, Mr. Taylor argued,

neither of those offenses continued to qualify as a “crime of

violence” after United States v. Davis, 588 U. S. ___ (2019).

In Davis, this Court held § 924(c)(3)(B)’s residual clause un-

constitutionally vague, and we refused to enforce a convic-

tion and sentence premised on its terms. Id., at ___–___

(slip op., at 24–25). In his habeas proceeding, Mr. Taylor

asked the court to apply Davis retroactively and vacate his

own § 924(c) conviction and sentence.

The government opposed Mr. Taylor’s petition. In doing

so, it did not seek to revisit Davis or oppose its retroactive

application to Mr. Taylor’s case. Instead, the government

observed that Davis declared only the residual clause un-

constitutional; even today the elements clause remains in

force. And, the government argued, the crime of attempted

Hobbs Act robbery qualifies as a crime of violence under the

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 3

Opinion of the Court

elements clause even if conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act rob-

bery may not. By this chain of logic, the government rea-

soned, Mr. Taylor’s § 924(c) conviction and sentence re-

mained sound.

Ultimately, the Fourth Circuit agreed to hear the dispute

and sided with Mr. Taylor. It held that attempted Hobbs

Act robbery does not qualify as a crime of violence under

§ 924(c)(3)(A) because no element of the offense requires the

government to prove that the defendant used, attempted to

use, or threatened to use force. By way of remedy, the Court

of Appeals vacated Mr. Taylor’s § 924(c) conviction and re-

manded the case for resentencing in light of his sole remain-

ing Hobbs Act conviction. In reaching its judgment, the

Fourth Circuit acknowledged that other circuits have taken

a different view, holding that attempted Hobbs Act robbery

does qualify as a crime of violence under the elements

clause. 979 F. 3d 203, 208 (2020). We agreed to take up

this case to resolve that question. 594 U. S. ___ (2021).

II

The parties may not see eye to eye on the outcome of this

case, but they at least agree on how we should go about de-

ciding it. To determine whether a federal felony may serve

as a predicate for a conviction and sentence under the ele-

ments clause, they say, we must apply a “categorical ap-

proach.” We must because the clause poses the question

whether the federal felony at issue “has as an element the

use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force.”

§ 924(c)(3)(A) (emphasis added). And answering that ques-

tion does not require—in fact, it precludes—an inquiry into

how any particular defendant may commit the crime. The

only relevant question is whether the federal felony at issue

always requires the government to prove—beyond a reason-

able doubt, as an element of its case—the use, attempted

use, or threatened use of force. This Court has long under-

4 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

stood similarly worded statutes to demand similarly cate-

gorical inquiries. See, e.g., Borden v. United States, 593

U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (slip op., at 2); Davis, 588 U. S., at ___

(slip op., at 10); Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U. S. 1, 7 (2004).

What are the elements the government must prove to se-

cure a conviction for attempted Hobbs Act robbery? Here

again the parties share common ground. Under the portion

of the Hobbs Act relevant here, to win a conviction for a

completed robbery the government must show that the de-

fendant engaged in the “unlawful taking or obtaining of

personal property from the person . . . of another, against

his will, by means of actual or threatened force.” § 1951(b).

From this, it follows that to win a case for attempted Hobbs

Act robbery the government must prove two things: (1) The

defendant intended to unlawfully take or obtain personal

property by means of actual or threatened force, and

(2) he completed a “substantial step” toward that end. See,

e.g., United States v. Resendiz-Ponce, 549 U. S. 102, 107

(2007). What exactly constitutes a substantial step is be-

yond the scope of today’s case. For present purposes, it is

sufficient to observe that the parties again agree. They ac-

cept that a substantial step demands something more than

“mere preparation.” Swift & Co. v. United States, 196 U. S.

375, 402 (1905). The step, they say, must be “unequivocal,”

Reply Brief 3, and “significant,” though it “need not be vio-

lent,” Brief for United States 22.

To know that much is enough to resolve this case. What-

ever one might say about completed Hobbs Act robbery, at-

tempted Hobbs Act robbery does not satisfy the elements

clause. Yes, to secure a conviction the government must

show an intention to take property by force or threat, along

with a substantial step toward achieving that object. But

an intention is just that, no more. And whatever a substan-

tial step requires, it does not require the government to

prove that the defendant used, attempted to use, or even

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 5

Opinion of the Court

threatened to use force against another person or his prop-

erty. As the Model Penal Code explains with respect to the

Hobbs Act’s common-law robbery analogue, “there will be

cases, appropriately reached by a charge of attempted rob-

bery, where the actor does not actually harm anyone or

even threaten harm.” ALI, Model Penal Code § 222.1,

p. 114 (1980). “If, for example, the defendant is appre-

hended before he reaches his robbery victim and thus before

he has actually engaged in threatening conduct, proof of his

purpose to engage in such conduct” can “justify a conviction

of attempted robbery” so long as his intention and some

other substantial step are present. Id., at 115.

A hypothetical helps illustrate the point. Suppose Adam

tells a friend that he is planning to rob a particular store on

a particular date. He then sets about researching the busi-

ness’s security measures, layout, and the time of day when

its cash registers are at their fullest. He buys a ski mask,

plots his escape route, and recruits his brother to drive the

getaway car. Finally, he drafts a note—“Your money or

your life”—that he plans to pass to the cashier. The note is

a bluff, but Adam hopes its implication that he is armed and

dangerous will elicit a compliant response. When the day

finally comes and Adam crosses the threshold into the store,

the police immediately arrest him. It turns out Adam’s

friend tipped them off.

There is little question the government could win a lawful

conviction against Adam for attempted Hobbs Act robbery.

After all, he intended to take property against the cashier’s

will by threat of force, and his actions constituted a sub-

stantial step toward that goal. At the same time, this ex-

ample helps show why attempted Hobbs Act robbery does

not qualify as a crime of violence under the elements clause.

Adam did not “use” physical force. He did not “attempt” to

use such force—his note was a bluff and never delivered.

And he never even got to the point of threatening the use of

force against anyone or anything. He may have intended

6 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

and attempted to do just that, but he failed. Simply put, no

element of attempted Hobbs Act robbery requires proof that

the defendant used, attempted to use, or threatened to use

force.

The upshot of all this for our case is clear. Mr. Taylor

may be lawfully subject to up to 20 years in federal prison

for his Hobbs Act conviction. But as the Fourth Circuit rec-

ognized, Congress has not authorized courts to convict and

sentence him to a decade of further imprisonment under

§ 924(c)(3)(A).1

III

A

Resisting this conclusion, the government offers three

principal replies. We take up first the argument the gov-

ernment presented before the Fourth Circuit and on which

it prevailed in other circuits. See, e.g., United States v. St.

Hubert, 909 F. 3d 335, 352–353 (CA11 2018). This theory

proceeds in the form of a syllogism. The government sub-

mits that the elements clause encompasses not only any of-

fense that qualifies as a “crime of violence” but also any at-

tempt to commit such a crime. And, the government

reasons, because completed Hobbs Act robbery qualifies as

a crime of violence, it follows that attempted Hobbs Act rob-

bery does too.

While the government pressed this argument in the

courts of appeals, it affords it only a passing nod here. And

the reason why quickly becomes clear: The government’s

——————

1 JUSTICE THOMAS concedes that the foregoing analysis is correct under

our categorical approach precedents. See post, at 3 (THOMAS, J., dissent-

ing). He contends only that we should overrule 30 years’ worth of our

categorical approach precedents in order to relieve the “ ‘bind’ ” they place

on prosecutors. Post, at 8, 11. But not even the prosecutors for whom

JUSTICE THOMAS professes concern seek anything like that. Nor does he

articulate any plausible way to understand the terms of the elements

clause without reference to the categorical approach. See post, at 14

(merely “welcom[ing] briefing” on the topic).

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 7

Opinion of the Court

syllogism rests on a false premise. The elements clause

does not ask whether the defendant committed a crime of

violence or attempted to commit one. It asks whether the

defendant did commit a crime of violence—and it proceeds

to define a crime of violence as a felony that includes as an

element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of force.

If Congress had wanted the elements clause to do the kind

of work the government supposes, it could have easily said

so. For example, it might have swept in those federal

crimes that require as an element “the use or threatened

use of force” and those “that constitute an attempt to com-

mit an offense that has such an element.” But that simply

is not the law we have.

B

Recognizing the weakness of the argument it pressed be-

low, the government spends much of its time before us elab-

orating two new theories. In the first, the government asks

us to focus on the “substantial step” element of attempted

Hobbs Act robbery. That element, the government submits,

categorically requires it to prove that a defendant used, at-

tempted to use, or threatened to use physical force.

This theory fails too, and for reasons we have already

seen. Without question, many who commit the crime of at-

tempted Hobbs Act robbery do use, attempt to use, or

threaten to use force. Suppose, for example, that the police

had arrested Adam after he handed over his threatening

note to the cashier but before he received any money. In a

case like that, the defendant would have threatened the use

of force while committing an attempted Hobbs Act robbery.

But some cases are not all cases, and the government’s

problem is that no element of attempted Hobbs Act robbery

requires the government to prove beyond a reasonable

doubt that the defendant used, attempted to use, or even

threatened to use force. Individuals like our foiled robber

who are arrested before they can threaten anyone may be

8 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

convicted too. See supra, at 4–6; cf. Model Penal Code, at

114–115.

Seeking a way around this problem, the government re-

sponds that we (and presumably the drafters of the Model

Penal Code) misconstrue what qualifies as the “threatened

use” of force. On its view, anyone who takes a substantial

step toward completing Hobbs Act robbery (say, by buying

a weapon, plotting his heist and getaway, writing an extor-

tive note before he leaves home, and entering a store) objec-

tively poses a “threatened use” of force even if he never com-

municates his threat to anyone.

This reply bears its own problems. To start, in the crim-

inal law the word “threat” and its cognates usually denote

“[a] communicated intent to inflict physical or other harm

on any person or on property.”2 Of course, threats can be

communicated verbally or nonverbally—pointing a gun at a

cashier conveys a threat no less effectively than passing a

note reading “your money or your life.” But one way or an-

other, some form of communication is usually required.

Even the government concedes that the words “threatened

force” in the Hobbs Act require proof that the defendant

communicated a threat to a second person, whether or not

that individual is the target of the threat. See Reply Brief

15.

That leaves the government to suggest that § 924(c)(3)(A)

differs from the Hobbs Act and represents an exception to

——————

2 Black’s Law Dictionary 1327 (5th ed. 1979) (defining “threat”);

Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary 2633 (5th ed. 1986) (defining “threat” and

“threaten”); see also, e.g., Oxford English Dictionary 998 (2d ed. 1989)

(threaten: “To try to influence (a person) by menaces; to utter or hold out

a threat against; to declare (usually conditionally) one’s intention of in-

flicting injury upon”); Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

2382 (3d ed. 1986) (threaten: “to utter threats against”; to “promise pun-

ishment, reprisal, or other distress to”); American Heritage Dictionary

1265 (2d ed. 1985) (threat: “An expression of an intention to inflict pain,

injury, evil, or punishment”); ibid. (threaten: “[t]o express a threat

against”).

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 9

Opinion of the Court

the usual rule. Seeking to make that case, the government

observes that, in some contexts, the word “threat” can be

used to speak of a more objective or abstract risk. So, for

example, a critic might say that a prison board’s decision to

parole a particular felon “threatens” community safety. Or

a conservationist might argue that a government decision

allowing commercial activity near a national park “threat-

ens” wildlife habitat. Before us, the government submits

that the elements clause uses the term in a similar way,

requiring only an objective, if uncommunicated, threat to

community peace and order. And, the government argues,

anyone who takes a substantial step toward completing a

Hobbs Act robbery always or categorically poses such a

threat.

The trouble is, when Congress uses the word “threat” in

this abstract and predictive (rather than communicative)

sense, it usually makes its point plain. It may ask, for ex-

ample, whether an individual or circumstance “poses” or

“represents” a threat. See, e.g., 6 U. S. C. § 1170(a)(1) (dis-

cussing “individuals who may pose a threat to transporta-

tion security”); 8 U. S. C. § 1735(a) (immigration officials

must determine that an “alien does not pose a threat to the

safety or national security of the United States”). Here we

have nothing like that. In fact, what textual clues we do

have point in the opposite direction.

Take this one. The statute speaks of the “use”

or “attempted use” of “physical force against the person or

property of another.” Plainly, this language requires the

government to prove that the defendant took specific ac-

tions against specific persons or their property. Reading

the statute’s remaining reference to the “threatened use of

physical force against the person or property of another” as

requiring a communicated threat fits with this design. By

contrast, the government’s competing interpretation would

vastly expand the statute’s reach by sweeping in conduct

that poses an abstract risk to community peace and order,

10 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

whether known or unknown to anyone at the time. It’s a

reading that would defy our usual rule of statutory inter-

pretation that a law’s terms are best understood by “the

company [they] kee[p ].” Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U. S.

561, 575 (1995).

Beyond that clue lies another. Next door to the elements

clause Congress included the residual clause. Under its

terms, “crimes of violence” were defined to embrace offenses

that, “by [their] nature, involv[e] a substantial risk that

physical force . . . may be used” against a person or prop-

erty. § 924(c)(3)(B). Pretty plainly, that language called for

an abstract inquiry into whether a particular crime, by its

nature, poses or presents a substantial risk (or “threat”) of

force being used. See Davis, 588 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op.,

at 5–7). Of course, this Court eventually held the residual

clause to be unconstitutionally vague. Id., at ___ (slip op.,

at 24). But if the government’s view of the elements clause

caught on, it would only wind up effectively replicating the

work formerly performed by the residual clause, collapsing

the distinction between them, and perhaps inviting similar

constitutional questions along the way. It’s an outcome

that would (again) defy our usual rules of statutory inter-

pretation—this time because we do not lightly assume Con-

gress adopts two separate clauses in the same law to per-

form the same work. See, e.g., Mackey v. Lanier Collection

Agency & Service, Inc., 486 U. S. 825, 839, n. 14 (1988).

C

Heaping alternative upon alternative, the government’s

final theory accepts that a conviction under the elements

clause requires a communicated threat of force. But, the

argument goes, most attempted Hobbs Act robbery prose-

cutions involve exactly that. Indeed, the government faults

Mr. Taylor for failing to identify a single case in which it

has prosecuted someone for attempted Hobbs Act robbery

without proving a communicated threat.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 11

Opinion of the Court

But what does that prove? Put aside the fact that Mr.

Taylor has identified cases in which the government has

apparently convicted individuals for attempted Hobbs Act

robbery without proving a communicated threat. See, e.g.,

United States v. Williams, 531 Fed. Appx. 270, 271–272

(CA3 2013). Put aside the oddity of placing a burden on the

defendant to present empirical evidence about the govern-

ment’s own prosecutorial habits. Put aside, too, the practi-

cal challenges such a burden would present in a world

where most cases end in plea agreements, and not all of

those cases make their way into easily accessible commer-

cial databases. See J. Turner, Transparency in Plea Bar-

gaining, 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 973, 974, 978–981 (2021).

An even more fundamental and by now familiar problem

lurks here. The government’s theory cannot be squared

with the statute’s terms. To determine whether a federal

felony qualifies as a crime of violence, § 924(c)(3)(A) doesn’t

ask whether the crime is sometimes or even usually associ-

ated with communicated threats of force (or, for that mat-

ter, with the actual or attempted use of force). It asks

whether the government must prove, as an element of its

case, the use, attempted use, or threatened use of force.

Maybe that is the test the statute presupposes, the gov-

ernment answers, but this Court’s case law requires its pro-

posed empirical study all the same. Notice, though, the

move implicit here. After previously admitting that we

must employ a categorical approach when interpreting the

reach of § 924(c)(3)(A), the government effectively back-

tracks. Instead of looking to the elements of attempted

Hobbs Act robbery, the government now says that a defend-

ant must present evidence about how his crime of conviction

is normally committed or usually prosecuted. If this admit-

tedly atextual theory seems doubtful on its face, a close look

at the case the government invokes does not improve the

picture.

The government points to Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez,

12 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

549 U. S. 183 (2007). There, this Court sought to apply pro-

visions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Id., at 185.

Under the INA, an individual with a prior state-court con-

viction that meets certain “generic” offense definitions un-

der federal law may face deportation. Id., at 186, 189;

see also 8 U. S. C. §§ 1101(a)(43)(G), 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). In

Duenas-Alvarez, there was no doubt that the relevant state

offense overlapped significantly with the federal definition

of generic “theft.” 549 U. S., at 190. But, Mr. Duenas-

Alvarez argued, state courts had interpreted the offense

broadly to reach aiding and abetting conduct that fell “be-

yond generic theft.” Id., at 190–191. To test this assertion,

the Court looked to state decisional law and asked whether

a “realistic probability” existed that the State “would apply

its statute to conduct that falls outside” the federal generic

definition. Id., at 193.

None of this begins to help the government for at least

two reasons. First, the immigration statute at issue in

Duenas-Alvarez required a federal court to make a judg-

ment about the meaning of a state statute. Appreciating

the respect due state courts as the final arbiters of state law

in our federal system, this Court reasoned that it made

sense to consult how a state court would interpret its own

State’s laws. Cf. Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, Inc., 472

U. S. 703, 709, n. 8 (1985). Meanwhile, no such federalism

concern is in play here. The statute before us asks only

whether the elements of one federal law align with those

prescribed in another. Second, in Duenas-

Alvarez the elements of the relevant state and federal of-

fenses clearly overlapped and the only question the Court

faced was whether state courts also “appl[ied] the statute

in [a] special (nongeneric) manner.” 549 U. S., at 193.

Here, we do not reach that question because there is no

overlap to begin with. Attempted Hobbs Act robbery does

not require proof of any of the elements § 924(c)(3)(A) de-

mands. That ends the inquiry, and nothing in Duenas-

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 13

Opinion of the Court

Alvarez suggests otherwise.3

*

The government quickly abandons the legal theory it ad-

vanced in the courts of appeals—and neither of the two new

options it auditions before us begins to fill the void. In

§ 924(c)(3)(A), Congress did not condition long prison terms

on an abstract judicial inquiry into whether and to what

degree this or that crime poses a risk to community peace

and safety. Nor did it mandate an empirical inquiry into

how crimes are usually committed, let alone impose a bur-

den on the defendant to present proof about the govern-

ment’s own prosecutorial habits.

Congress tasked the courts with a much more straight-

forward job: Look at the elements of the underlying crime

and ask whether they require the government to prove the

use, attempted use, or threatened use of force. Following

——————

3 JUSTICE ALITO offers still another argument on the government’s be-

half. According to our colleague, the crime of completed Hobbs Act rob-

bery requires the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and a

unanimous jury must agree on, the particular “means” by which the de-

fendant committed his offense—by “actual” force, “threatened force,” “vi-

olence,” or “fear of injury.” § 1951(b)(1); post, at 3–6 (dissenting opinion).

And because attempts to commit robbery by some of these means could

qualify as crimes of violence under § 924(c)(3)(A), JUSTICE ALITO would

classify the entire offense of attempted Hobbs Act robbery a “crime of

violence.” Post, at 6. But the parties have not whispered a word about

any of this. Perhaps for good reason too. For one thing, it is unclear

whether the Act’s “means” clause sets forth elements or merely lists al-

ternative ways a defendant may take or obtain property against the vic-

tim’s will. If the latter is true, as some courts have held, a jury need

unanimously conclude only that the defendant used one of the listed

means; it need not agree on which one. See, e.g., United States v. St.

Hubert, 909 F. 3d 335, 348–349 (CA11 2018); United States v. Hancock,

168 F. Supp. 3d 817, 821 (D MD 2016). For another, even assuming the

Act is divisible in the sense he suggests, JUSTICE ALITO acknowledges

that his some-is-good-enough approach defies this Court’s precedents.

Post, at 6; Descamps v. United States, 570 U. S. 254, 260–264 (2013).

14 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

that direction in this case, the Fourth Circuit correctly rec-

ognized that, to convict a defendant of attempted Hobbs Act

robbery, the government does not have to prove any of those

things. Accordingly, Mr. Taylor may face up to 20 years in

prison for violating the Hobbs Act. But he may not be law-

fully convicted and sentenced under § 924(c) to still another

decade in federal prison. The judgment of the Court of Ap-

peals is

Affirmed.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 1

THOMAS, J., dissenting

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

No. 20–1459

_________________

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER v. JUSTIN

EUGENE TAYLOR

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

[June 21, 2022]

JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting.

Justin Eugene Taylor and an accomplice pulled a gun on

a fellow drug dealer as they tried to rob him. During the

attempted robbery, the victim was shot and killed. Taylor

pleaded guilty to using a firearm during an attempted

Hobbs Act robbery, which he conceded was a “crime of vio-

lence” under 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(3). Taylor made that con-

cession because threatening to shoot someone during a rob-

bery is undoubtedly a violent act. Yet, the Court holds that

Taylor did not actually commit a “crime of violence” because

a hypothetical defendant—the Court calls him “Adam”—

could have been convicted of attempting to commit Hobbs

Act robbery without using, attempting to use, or threaten-

ing to use physical force. Ante, at 5; see §924(c)(3)(A).

This holding exemplifies just how this Court’s “categori-

cal approach” has led the Federal Judiciary on a “journey

Through the Looking Glass,” during which we have found

many “strange things.” L. Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and

Through the Looking Glass 227 (J. Messner ed. 1982). Ra-

ther than continue this 30-year excursion into the absurd,

I would hold Taylor accountable for what he actually did

and uphold his conviction. Accordingly, I respectfully dis-

sent.

2 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

I

In 2002 and 2003, Justin Eugene Taylor was a middle-

man in the Richmond, Virginia, marijuana trade. He

bought the drug wholesale and sold it to retail distributors.

On August 14, 2003, he offered to obtain marijuana for re-

tail distributor Martin Sylvester. Taylor ultimately failed

to procure the drug but still aimed to purloin Sylvester’s

cash. To that end, Taylor contacted a co-conspirator who

had a handgun. The two met Sylvester in an alley, ostensi-

bly for the sale. They brandished the handgun and de-

manded the money. Sylvester resisted and was shot. The

robbers fled, leaving Sylvester to die. 979 F. 3d 203, 205

(CA4 2020).

Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia charged

Taylor with various drug and firearms offenses. Most rele-

vant here, they charged him with violating 18 U. S. C.

§924(c), which punishes anyone who “uses or carries a fire-

arm” “during and in relation to any crime of violence,” or

who possesses a firearm “in furtherance of any such crime.”

Congress defined a “crime of violence” in one of two ways:

as an offense that has “as an element the use, attempted

use, or threatened use of physical force against the person

or property of another” (commonly called the “elements

clause”), or as an offense that, “by its nature, involves a sub-

stantial risk that physical force against the person or prop-

erty of another may be used in the course of committing the

offense” (commonly called the “residual clause”).

§§924(c)(3)(A), (B).

Prosecutors predicated Taylor’s §924(c) charge on his

commission of attempted Hobbs Act robbery. Ante, at 1 (de-

scribing Hobbs Act robbery). In 2009, in exchange for the

Government dropping most of the charges, Taylor pleaded

guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and the

§924(c) charge—that is, using a firearm during and in rela-

tion to a crime of violence. In doing so, he admitted to the

attempted robbery and the shooting. He also admitted that

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 3

THOMAS, J., dissenting

attempted Hobbs Act robbery is a “crime of violence” under

§924(c).

The District Court sentenced Taylor to 360 months’ im-

prisonment—a 240-month sentence for the conspiracy and

a 120-month consecutive sentence for the §924(c) convic-

tion. Taylor appealed, but in 2011 the Court of Appeals dis-

missed the appeal because Taylor had waived his appellate

rights in his plea agreement. Order in United States v. Tay-

lor, No. 09–4468, ECF Doc. 54 (CA4, Jan. 7, 2011). In 2015,

he then unsuccessfully sought postconviction relief under

28 U. S. C. §2255. United States v. Taylor, 2015 WL

4095845, *1 (ED Va., July 7, 2015).

Decided around the time of his failed §2255 motion, one

of this Court’s cases appeared to give Taylor another chance

to challenge his conviction. In Johnson v. United States,

576 U. S. 591 (2015), the Court struck down the similarly

worded residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act

(ACCA), as unconstitutionally vague. The following year,

in Welch v. United States, 578 U. S. 120 (2016), the Court

held that Johnson applies retroactively on collateral re-

view. Citing those two decisions, Taylor moved for permis-

sion to file a second-or-successive §2255 petition. He ar-

gued that §924(c)’s residual clause paralleled ACCA’s

residual clause and therefore was unconstitutionally vague.

979 F. 3d, at 206. He further argued that attempted Hobbs

Act robbery was not a “crime of violence” under §924(c)’s

elements clause because it lacked “as an element the use,

attempted use, or threatened use of physical force.”

§924(c)(3)(A).

The Court of Appeals granted the motion to file a succes-

sive habeas petition and, in 2020, vacated Taylor’s §924(c)

conviction. It did so because, as the Court explains, our

precedents require that courts apply a “categorical ap-

proach” when interpreting the elements clause. Ante, at 11.

Under that approach, a criminal defendant who commits a

4 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

violent crime nonetheless does not commit a “crime of vio-

lence” if a hypothetical criminal could commit the same of-

fense without satisfying §924(c)’s physical-force require-

ment. See ibid. Because someone else—“Adam”—could

have committed attempted Hobbs Act robbery without

physical force, the Court holds, Taylor’s armed robbery that

resulted in the victim’s death is not a “crime of violence”

under §924(c).

II

We have reached this point of absurdity only because this

Court applies a narrow categorical approach to §924(c)’s el-

ements clause and has nullified the residual clause that

would have captured crimes like Taylor’s. It is hard to

fathom why this makes sense or why any rational Congress

would countenance such an outcome so divorced from real-

ity.

A

Our odyssey began in 1990, as the Court wrestled with a

different clause found in a different part of §924: ACCA’s

sentencing enhancement in §924(e). Unlike §924(c), which

defines a substantive crime, ACCA imposes a sentencing

enhancement that applies to any defendant with three or

more prior “violent felon[ies]” whom the Federal Govern-

ment convicts of illegally possessing a firearm. §§922(g),

924(e)(2). Like §924(c), ACCA defines “violent felony” with

an elements clause and a residual clause. The Act also in-

cludes an “enumerated-offenses” clause defining “violent

felony” to include any crime that “is burglary, arson, or ex-

tortion, [or] involves use of explosives.” §924(e)(2).

In Taylor v. United States, 495 U. S. 575 (1990), the Court

first adopted a categorical approach when interpreting

“burglary” under ACCA’s enumerated-offenses clause. Id.,

at 598. The Court construed “burglary” in the abstract, as

a “generic burglary” with elements derived from a treatise

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 5

THOMAS, J., dissenting

and the Model Penal Code. Id., at 593–598, and n. 8. The

Court then held that the enumerated-offenses clause pro-

hibits courts from looking to the “particular facts” of a de-

fendant’s burglary to see if the conduct satisfies the ele-

ments of generic burglary. Id., at 600. It does not matter

how violent the defendant’s actual conduct was. Instead,

courts must determine whether the elements of the bur-

glary statute under which a defendant was convicted “sub-

stantially correspon[d]” to generic burglary. Id., at 600,

602. Though Taylor gave “few reasons why” this so-called

categorical approach “was the correct reading of ACCA,” at

the “ ‘heart of the decision’ ” were “worrie[s]” that a conduct-

based approach to a sentencing enhancement might violate

the Sixth Amendment by leading to “full-blown mini-

trial[s], with factfinding by the judge instead of the jury.”

Sessions v. Dimaya, 584 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2018) (THOMAS,

J., dissenting) (slip op., at 21–22).

While Taylor applied the categorical approach only to

ACCA’s enumerated-offenses clause, the approach soon mi-

grated to the elements clauses in ACCA and elsewhere.

See, e.g., Borden v. United States, 593 U. S. ___, ___ (2021)

(plurality opinion) (slip op., at 2). In that context, the cate-

gorical approach demands that a court divine what consti-

tutes the “least serious conduct [the prior conviction or

predicate offense] covers” and decide whether that conduct

“falls within the elements clause.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at

20). To do that, a judge must “mull through any number of

hypothetical ways to commit a crime that have nothing to

do with the facts of the prior conviction” or the facts under-

lying a predicate §924(c) offense. United States v. Burris,

912 F. 3d 386, 409 (CA6 2019) (Thapar, J., concurring). If

a court identifies a way to commit the crime without using,

attempting to use, or threatening to use force, then the

crime is not a “violent felony” or “crime of violence” under

ACCA’s or §924(c)’s elements clauses. See Borden, 593

U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 20).

6 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

This Court eventually extended the categorical approach

to ACCA’s residual clause as well. In James v. United

States, 550 U. S. 192 (2007), the Court, at the urging of both

parties, “employ[ed] the ‘categorical approach’ ” to analyze

ACCA’s residual clause. Id., at 202 (quoting Shepard v.

United States, 544 U. S. 13, 17 (2005)). That clause defines

a “violent felony” as one that “otherwise involves conduct

that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to

another.” §924(e)(2)(B)(ii). James explained that ACCA’s

residual-clause categorical approach boiled down to two

steps. First, a court looked to the elements of the crime for

which the defendant was convicted and asked what conduct

the “ordinary case” of that crime entailed. 550 U. S., at 208.

Second, the court asked whether that “ordinary case” “pre-

sent[ed] a serious potential risk of injury to another” com-

parable to that posed by the specific crimes listed in the

enumerated-offenses clause. Id., at 204, 208–209. If it did,

then the predicate crime was a “violent felony.”

That test proved difficult to apply. In particular, the

Court struggled with how to define the “ordinary case” of a

given predicate crime. See Johnson, 576 U. S., at 597 (“How

does one go about deciding what kind of conduct the ordi-

nary case of a crime involves? A statistical analysis of the

state reporter? A survey? Expert evidence? Google? Gut

instinct?” (internal quotation marks omitted)). The Court

likewise struggled in assessing what level of risk the ordi-

nary case presented. Id., at 598. After trying to apply this

approach several times, see, e.g., Begay v. United States,

553 U. S. 137 (2008), the Court in Johnson ultimately aban-

doned the project. But rather than reassess whether it had

adopted the right analytical framework in light of ACCA’s

text and statutory context, the Court in Johnson nullified

ACCA’s residual clause altogether. See 576 U. S., at 624

(THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment). According to the

Court, the “[t]wo features” of the residual-clause analysis

that the Court set out in James—identifying “ordinary

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 7

THOMAS, J., dissenting

case” conduct and judging whether that abstracted conduct

“presents a serious risk of physical injury”—“conspire[d] to

make [the residual clause] unconstitutionally vague.” 576

U. S., at 597–598 (majority opinion).

That conclusion was not inevitable. The Johnson Court

did “not doubt the constitutionality of laws that call for the

application of a qualitative standard such as ‘substantial

risk’ to real-world conduct.” Id., at 603–604. Thus, the

Court “all but concede[d] that the residual clause would be

constitutional if,” rather than incorporating James’ categor-

ical approach, it looked to whether the “ ‘real-world con-

duct’ ” of the underlying conviction presented a serious risk

of physical injury to another. 576 U. S., at 632 (ALITO, J.,

dissenting).

Despite recognizing that a conduct-based approach was

constitutionally sound, the Court later extended Johnson to

the residual clause in §924(c). See United States v. Davis,

588 U. S. ___, ___ (2019). The Davis Court decided that the

§924(c) residual clause’s language was so similar to the

ACCA residual clause that it, too, must be void for vague-

ness. Id., at ___–___, ___–___ (slip op., at 6–7, 24–25). Four

of us, however, advanced a more sensible approach: Rather

than extend Johnson to nullify §924(c)’s residual clause, we

should simply not use the categorical approach when inter-

preting residual clauses and adopt a framework focused on

the defendant’s actual conduct that Johnson conceded was

constitutional. See 588 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 16–17)

(KAVANAUGH, J., dissenting).

As the Davis dissent explained, §924(c)’s residual clause

is best interpreted to call for a conduct-based approach. Id.,

at ___–___ (slip op., at 17–24). To begin with, the plain text

of the residual clause strongly supports a conduct-based ap-

proach. See ibid. Further, none of the perceived Sixth

Amendment concerns that attend to ACCA’s sentencing en-

hancement are present in the §924(c) context, because a

“jury will find the facts or, if the case ends in a guilty plea,

8 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

the defendant will accept the facts in the plea agreement.”

Id., at ___ (slip op., at 16). Finally, if any ambiguity re-

mains, a conduct-based approach to §924(c)’s residual

clause best accords with the canon counseling courts to con-

strue statutes not to violate the Constitution whenever pos-

sible. See id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 26–27) (“To be clear,

the case before us is not a case of avoiding possible uncon-

stitutionality. This is a case of avoiding actual unconstitu-

tionality”); see also Dimaya, 584 U. S., at ___ (THOMAS, J.,

dissenting) (slip op., at 20). Thus, read properly, the resid-

ual clause is as constitutionally sound as any other criminal

law applying “ ‘a qualitative standard . . . to real-world con-

duct.’ ” Davis, 588 U. S., at ___ (KAVANAUGH, J., dissenting)

(slip op., at 6) (quoting Johnson, 576 U. S., at 604). Nothing

in the three years since Davis has changed that.

B

To the contrary, the last three years have instead shown

how our §924(c) precedents have “left prosecutors and

courts in a bind.” Borden, 593 U. S., at ___ (THOMAS, J.,

concurring in judgment) (slip op., at 2). Section 924(c)’s re-

sidual clause—which squarely applies to the mine run of

violent crimes—is no longer available. The categorical ap-

proach, meanwhile, forecloses §924(c)’s elements clause un-

less, in every hypothetical prosecution, the crime of convic-

tion requires the Government to prove that physical force

against another was used, attempted, or threatened. In

case after case, our precedents have compelled courts to

hold that heinous crimes are not “crimes of violence” just

because someone, somewhere, might commit that crime

without using force.

A few examples from the Courts of Appeals demonstrate

how our precedents have emasculated §924(c). First, in

United States v. Walker, 934 F. 3d 375 (2019), the Fourth

Circuit considered whether a conviction for federal kidnap-

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 9

THOMAS, J., dissenting

ing could predicate a §924(c) conviction. See id., at 376 (cit-

ing §1201(a)). Walker and an accomplice had kicked in the

door of a family’s home, held the victims at gunpoint, beat

some of them, demanded money, and threatened to kill the

family’s 4-year-old daughter, all before locking the family

in a closet and ransacking the house. Factual Basis for

Guilty Plea in United States v. Walker, No. 14–cr–00271,

ECF Doc. 13 (MDNC, Nov. 3, 2014). No one could dispute

that Walker’s conduct presented a “substantial risk that

physical force” would be used “in the course of committing

the offense.” §924(c)(3)(B). Yet, because of Davis, the

Fourth Circuit could not invoke the residual clause. See

Walker, 934 F. 3d, at 378. That left only §924(c)(3)’s ele-

ments clause, interpreted according to the inflexible cate-

gorical approach. Compelled to imagine whether federal

kidnaping could hypothetically be committed without the

use of physical force, the Fourth Circuit ultimately vacated

Walker’s §924(c) conviction because a criminal could com-

mit the offense by “inveigl[ing]” a victim and then holding

him in captivity with a “mental restraint.” Id., at 378–379

(emphasis deleted).1

Second, in United States v. Tsarnaev, 968 F. 3d 24 (CA1

2020), reversed on other grounds, 595 U. S. ___ (2022), the

First Circuit considered whether a terrorist’s conviction for

federal arson—which he committed in the course of carry-

ing out the Boston Marathon bombings—counted as a crime

——————

1 See also, e.g., United States v. Brazier, 933 F. 3d 796, 798–801 (CA7

2019) (federal kidnaping not a crime of violence under §924(c) despite

victim being bound, gagged, tortured, and shot); Bufkin v. United States,

800 Fed. Appx. 436, 437, 439 (CA7 2020) (Government conceding that

federal kidnaping is not a crime of violence even when “the two defend-

ants threatened the victim at gunpoint, robbed, bound, and gagged him,

and drove him around in the trunk of the car for four hours before releas-

ing him”); United States v. Sanford, 779 Fed. Appx. 568, 570 (CA10 2019)

(vacating §924(c) convictions even when the underlying conduct involved

kidnaping, threatening, and robbing a family, all at gunpoint).

10 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

of violence under §924(c). Tsarnaev and his brother inten-

tionally detonated bombs that killed three people, including

an 8-year-old, and injured hundreds more. See id., at ___–

___ (slip op., at 2–3). Yet, the categorical-approach prece-

dents led the First Circuit to the admittedly “counterintui-

tive” conclusion that federal arson resulting in death aris-

ing from a terrorist bombing was not a crime of violence.

Tsarnaev, 968 F. 3d, at 102. The residual clause had been

nullified, id., at 99, and the First Circuit held that federal

arson did not satisfy the elements clause because it theoret-

ically could have been committed recklessly, id., at 102,2

which, we have held in the ACCA context, renders a crime

outside the elements clause, see Borden, 593 U. S., at ___–

___ (plurality opinion) (slip op., at 7–8).

Finally, in United States v. Ledbetter, 929 F. 3d 338 (CA6

2019), the Sixth Circuit vacated two convictions under 18

U. S. C. §924(j), which criminalizes “caus[ing] the death of

a person through the use of a firearm” “in the course of a

violation of ” §924(c). 929 F. 3d, at 360–361. The two de-

fendants were associated with a gang called the “Short

North Posse.” Id., at 359. One belonged to a subunit of the

gang, appropriately named the “ ‘Homicide Squad,’ ” which

“specializ[ed] in murders and robberies.” Id., at 345. In

August 2007, they joined a team of gang members who

broke into a home and shot a victim to death. Id., at 359.

Section 924(c)’s residual clause would have covered the de-

fendants’ conduct, given that there is obviously a “substan-

tial risk that physical force” would be “used in the course

of ” a gangland home-invasion murder. §924(c)(3)(B). But

Davis had nullified that clause, and the Government con-

ceded that conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery—the

——————

2 See United States v. Moore, 802 Fed. Appx. 338, 340–342 (CA10 2020)

(federal arson not a crime of violence even when the defendant ignited a

homemade bomb during an attempt to blow up a shopping mall).

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 11

THOMAS, J., dissenting

predicate crime for the defendants’ §924(j) convictions—

was not a crime of violence under this Court’s elements-

clause precedents. 929 F. 3d, at 360–361. These are not

the only homicide-related §924 convictions that Davis has

undermined.3

These examples show how our precedents have led the

Federal Judiciary to “a pretend place.” United States v. Da-

vis, 875 F. 3d 592, 595 (CA11 2017). With the residual

clause nullified, courts cannot look to it to capture violent

crimes. And, because of the categorical approach, the ele-

ments clause often does not apply because “other defend-

ants at other times may have been convicted, or future de-

fendants could be convicted, of violating the same statute

without violence.” Ibid. Like Alice, we have strayed far

“down the rabbit hole,” and “[c]uriouser and curiouser it has

all become.” Ibid.

III

There is a straightforward solution to this problem—

overrule Davis. Cf. Borden, 593 U. S., at ___ (opinion of

THOMAS, J.) (slip op., at 3) (“There is a straightforward so-

lution to this dilemma—overrule Johnson”). It is a demon-

strably erroneous precedent that veered from the best in-

terpretation of §924(c)’s residual clause. See supra, at 7–8

(citing Davis, 588 U. S., at ___–___ (KAVANAUGH, J., dis-

senting) (slip op., at 16–17)); cf. Johnson, 576 U. S., at 613

(THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment) (noting this Court’s

habit of wielding due process doctrines like vagueness “to

achieve its own policy goals”). Accordingly, I would overrule

——————

3 See, e.g., United States v. Capers, 20 F. 4th 105, 111–112 (CA2 2021)

(applying United States v. Davis, 588 U. S. ___ (2019), and finding that

a federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conspir-

acy resulting in a gangland killing could not predicate a §924(j) convic-

tion); see also, e.g., Brief for United States in Grzegorczyk v. United

States, O. T. 2021, No. 21–5967 (Government conceding that, after Davis,

a federal murder-for-hire conviction was not a crime of violence under

§924(c)).

12 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

Davis and adopt in its place the conduct-based approach

that the Davis dissent described. Overruling Davis would

revive §924(c)’s residual clause, once again allowing the

statute to capture the vast majority of §924(c) convictions

that elude an elements clause straightjacketed by the cate-

gorical approach.

With a revived residual clause, resolving this case is easy.

Taylor’s counsel acknowledged that Congress “enacted the

residual clause to capture cases just like” Taylor’s. Tr. of

Oral Arg. 48–49. His confessed conduct—an attempted

armed robbery during which the victim was shot and

killed—“by its nature, involve[d] a substantial risk that

physical force” would be used. §924(c)(3)(B). Thus, Taylor

committed a predicate offense that supported his §924(c)

conviction. Taylor’s appeal should therefore fail, and he

should serve the 10 years in prison he received for the

§924(c) conviction.

This same logic would have saved the other convictions

described above. Equipped with a revived residual clause

focused on the defendant’s actual conduct, those federal

courts would not have had to vacate the §924(c) convictions

of kidnapers who threatened families, terrorists who

bombed sporting events, or murderers who shot their vic-

tims. In other words, those courts could have applied the

statute that Congress enacted rather than the one this

Court effectively rewrote and then nullified.

IV

The costs of our decisions imposing the categorical ap-

proach on §924(c) and other statutes have been immense.

Apart from the unnatural results it produces in §924(c)

cases, the categorical approach has led to equally baffling

ones in the ACCA context and elsewhere. See, e.g., Burris,

912 F. 3d, at 407 (Thapar, J., concurring) (“A casual reader

. . . might struggle to understand why we are even debating

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 13

THOMAS, J., dissenting

if ramming a vehicle into a police officer is a crime of vio-

lence”); Davis, 875 F. 3d, at 604 (holding that a man

charged with first-degree rape who pleaded to first-degree

sexual abuse by forcible compulsion had not committed an

ACCA “violent felony” because the force required was insuf-

ficiently violent). Moreover, courts attempting to apply the

categorical approach waste time thinking up improbable

hypotheticals, making the approach “very difficult to ad-

minister.” Burris, 912 F. 3d, at 407 (Thapar, J., concur-

ring); see also, e.g., Cradler v. United States, 891 F. 3d 659,

672 (CA6 2018) (Kethledge, J., concurring) (“Whatever the

merits of this approach, accuracy and judicial efficiency are

not among them”). Finally, Congress, through legislation,

created crimes like §924(c) and enhancements like ACCA to

reduce gun crime rates by imposing long sentences on vio-

lent criminals who use firearms. See Davis, 588 U. S., at

___–___ (KAVANAUGH, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 1–2). Yet,

as a growing chorus of Court of Appeals judges has ex-

plained, the categorical approach stymies that effort. See,

e.g., United States v. Ovalles, 905 F. 3d 1231, 1253–1257

(CA11 2018) (W. Pryor, J., concurring). No rational legisla-

ture would have implicitly imposed this byzantine and

resource-depleting legal doctrine that so encumbers federal

courts and threatens public safety.

Worse still, this Court has imposed these costs on the fed-

eral courts and the public even though the text of these pro-

visions does not demand them. I have already pointed out

the “absurdity of applying the categorical approach to the

enumerated-offenses clause” of ACCA and have suggested

that a conduct-based approach better fits the text. Quarles

v. United States, 587 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2019) (THOMAS, J.,

concurring) (slip op., at 1–2). And although the categorical

approach might be a “linguistically possible” interpretation

of the residual clauses, “the underlying-conduct approach is

the better one.” Dimaya, 584 U. S., at ___ (THOMAS, J., dis-

senting) (slip op., at 25). And finally, while I have suggested

14 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

THOMAS, J., dissenting

that the categorical approach applies most plausibly in the

elements-clause context, see id., at ___ (slip op., at 26), the

Government has suggested that even that clause might bet-

ter accord with a conduct-based approach. Tr. of Oral Arg.

5–6; see also Burris, 912 F. 3d, at 409–410 (Thapar, J., con-

curring).

In light of the mischief that the categorical approach has

caused, we should welcome briefing on whether a conduct-

based approach tacks closer to statutory text and common

sense—especially in the elements-clause context. If it does,

we should adopt it.4

* * *

Even Alice, having slaked her curiosity, eventually re-

turned from the land beyond the looking glass. It is high

time that this Court do the same. In this case, I would begin

the trek back by adopting the Davis dissent’s conduct-based

approach, reviving §924(c)’s residual clause, and reversing

the judgment below. And in future cases, when it comes to

interpreting §924(c)’s elements clause, I will carefully con-

sider alternatives to this Court’s atextual and ever-more-

absurd categorical approach. For these reasons, I respect-

fully dissent.

——————

4 Meanwhile, JUSTICE ALITO’s dissent offers an intriguing alternative

interpretation of §924(c)(3)(A)’s elements clause. See post, at 1–4. While

no party advocates for the interpretation in this case, we should welcome

further briefing on it as well.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 1

ALITO, J., dissenting

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

No. 20–1459

_________________

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER v. JUSTIN

EUGENE TAYLOR

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

[June 21, 2022]

JUSTICE ALITO, dissenting.

As JUSTICE THOMAS clearly shows, the offense for which

respondent Justin Taylor was convicted constituted a “vio-

lent felony” in the ordinary sense of the term. Taylor and

an accomplice met with Martin Silvester for the ostensible

purpose of selling him marijuana, but unbeknownst to Sil-

vester, Taylor and his accomplice did not intend to complete

the sale. Instead, they had agreed to threaten Silvester

with a 9-millimeter pistol and demand that he hand over

his money. When Silvester refused to comply with their de-

mand, Taylor’s accomplice shot Silvester, and he died the

next day. Taylor was convicted of using and carrying a fire-

arm during, and in relation to, a crime of violence, 18

U. S. C. §924(c)(3)(A). That conviction was based on a pred-

icate act of attempted robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act,

18 U. S. C. §1951(a).

The Court holds that this violent (and, indeed, deadly) of-

fense did not constitute a “crime of violence” under the tech-

nical definition of that term in §924(c)(3)(A). I agree with

JUSTICE THOMAS that our cases involving §924(c)(3)(A)

have veered off into fantasy land.1 But if the Court is going

——————

1 The major reason for this excursion was the adoption and spread of

the so-called categorical approach. Although the Court originally

adopted the “categorical approach” in Taylor v. United States, 495 U. S.

575 (1990), for other reasons, the major impetus for the expansion of that

2 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

ALITO, J., dissenting

to disregard the real world and base its decisions in this

area on a strict reading of the text, the “offense” for which

Taylor was convicted—attempted Hobbs Act robbery—

meets the definition in §924(c)(3)(A). That definition pro-

vides that an “offense” qualifies as a “ ‘crime of violence’ ” if

it is a felony and “has as an element the use, attempted use,

or threatened use of physical force against the person . . . of

another.” (Emphasis added.)

The key point is the meaning of “an element” of an of-

fense. This is a fundamental criminal law concept, and we

must therefore presume that §924(c)(3)(A) employs the

term in its usual and established sense. See A. Scalia & B.

Garner, Reading Law 320–321 (2012). And the usual and

——————

approach was concern that allowing the enhancement of a sentence

based on facts found by a judge would violate the Sixth Amendment jury-

trial right as interpreted in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U. S. 466 (2000),

and later related cases. It is questionable whether those cases are con-

sistent with the original meaning of the Sixth Amendment. See Alleyne

v. United States, 570 U. S. 99, 132–134 (2013) (ALITO, J., dissenting);

Cunningham v. California, 549 U. S. 270, 298, n. 1 (2007) (ALITO, J., dis-

senting); see also M. McConnell, The Booker Mess, 83 Denver U. L. Rev.

665, 679 (2006) (explaining that “fully discretionary sentencing” was the

norm “when the Sixth Amendment was adopted”); J. Mitchell, Apprendi’s

Domain, 2006 S. Ct. Rev. 297, 298–299 (“Apprendi’s historical claim that

sentencing enhancements were treated as ‘elements’ . . . whenever they

increased a defendant’s maximum punishment is demonstrably mis-

taken”); R. Little & T. Chen, The Lost History of Apprendi and the

Blakely Petition for Rehearing, 17 Fed. Sentencing Rep. 69, 69–70 (2004)

(arguing that Apprendi was “undoubtedly founded on an erroneous his-

torical understanding”); S. Bibas, Judicial Fact-Finding and Sentence

Enhancements in a World of Guilty Pleas, 110 Yale L. J. 1097, 1123–

1132 (2001) (arguing that discretionary sentencing was characteristic of

18th-century misdemeanor sentencing and no fixed rule emerged even in

the 19th century). But even if the approach were necessary when a court

is determining a defendant’s sentence, no Sixth Amendment concern is

implicated under §924(c), and the Court thus erred in holding that the

categorical approach applied to the residual clause of that statute in

United States v. Davis, 588 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2019) (slip op., 16–17)

(KAVANAUGH, J., dissenting).

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 3

ALITO, J., dissenting

established meaning of an “element” is clear: It is a “ ‘con-

stituent par[t]’ of a crime’s legal definition—[a] thin[g] the

‘prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt to sus-

tain a conviction.’ ” Mathis v. United States, 579 U. S. 500,

504 (2016) (quoting Black’s Law Dictionary 634 (10th ed.

2014)). See also, e.g., Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U. S. 466,

477 (2000); United States v. Gaudin, 515 U. S. 506, 510

(1995).

It is also established that there are two different types of

elements. Some are invariant; that is, they must be proved

in every case. But it is not uncommon for statutes to in-

clude a set of alternative elements and to provide that one,

but not all, of these alternative elements must be proved to

secure a conviction. As the Court said in Descamps v.

United States, 570 U. S. 254 (2013), a statute may “se[t] out

one or more elements of the offense in the alternative—for

example, [by] stating that burglary involves entry into a

building or an automobile.” Id., at 257 (emphasis in origi-

nal).

The Hobbs Act includes both types of elements. It crimi-

nalizes a robbery that “obstructs, delays, or affects” inter-

state commerce, 18 U. S. C. §1951(a), and it defines “rob-

bery” to mean “the unlawful taking or obtaining of personal

property from the person . . . of another, against his will, by

means of actual or threatened force, or violence, or fear of

injury, immediate or future,” §1951(b)(1). Accordingly, the

elements of Hobbs Act robbery are (1) the unlawful taking

or obtaining (2) of personal property (3) from the person of

another (4) against his or her will (5) by means of actual or

(6) by means of threatened force, or (7) by means of violence,

or (8) by means of fear of injury. The first four elements

must be proved in every case, while the last four are alter-

native elements any one of which is sufficient for convic-

tion.2 A completed Hobbs Act robbery satisfies §924(c)(3)(A)

——————

2 There is no plausible argument that actual force, threatened force,

4 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

ALITO, J., dissenting

because multiple elements involve “the use, attempted use,

or threatened use of physical force against the person or

property of another.” Elements (5) thorough (8) obviously

qualify, and it is possible that element (4) does as well.

The offense of attempted Hobbs Act robbery also quali-

fies. A person commits a criminal attempt if he or she takes

a “ ‘substantial step’ toward completing” an intended of-

fense. United States v. Resendiz-Ponce, 549 U. S. 102, 106–

107 (2007) (quoting 2 W. LaFave, Substantive Criminal

Law §11.4) (2d ed. 2003)). In other words, a defendant must

intend to commit some combination of elements that is suf-

ficient to constitute Hobbs Act robbery and must take a sub-

stantial step toward the commission of such a combination

of elements. If we label these combinations as A, B, C . . . ,

then the elements of attempted Hobbs Act robbery are (1)

intending to commit at least one qualifying combination,

i.e., A, B, C . . . , and (2) taking a substantial step toward

the commission of A, B, C . . . . Each such combination con-

stitutes an “offense” within the meaning of §924(c)(3), and

several combinations satisfy the definition of a “crime of vi-

olence.”

Here is a straightforward example: A hypothetical de-

fendant (let’s call her “Eve”) intends to take or obtain per-

sonal property from the person of another unlawfully and

——————

violence, and fear of injury are only “means” of committing Hobbs Act

robbery and not elements of the offense under the logic of the Court’s

decision in Mathis v. United States, 579 U. S. 500. Distinct “means” of

carrying out an offense are “alternative means of satisfying one (or more)

of its elements.” Id., at 503. In other words, the “means” of carrying out

an offense are ways of carrying out an element of that offense. But there

is no overarching element of Hobbs Act robbery of which actual or threat-

ened force, violence, or fear of injury could be subordinate means of per-

forming. And in any case, a jury must find that the prosecution proved

beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant took or obtained property

from the person of another by way of force, threatened force, violence, or

fear of injury, which entails that these ways of effectuating robbery con-

stitute elements of the offense. See id., at 504–506.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 5

ALITO, J., dissenting

against his or her will by means of actual force. Eve is

guilty of the “offense” of attempted Hobbs Act robbery, and

her offense “has as an element the use . . . of physical force

against the person . . . of another.” That is where the Court

must end up if it looks at only the text of §924(c)(3)(A) and

the Hobbs Act.

It is no answer to this argument that Taylor is not Eve.

He is also not Adam. The whole point of the categorical ap-

proach that the Court dutifully follows is that the real world

must be scrupulously disregarded.

The Court reaches the opposite conclusion only because

it accepts the proposition—which the Government did not

contest—that a felony “has as an element the use, at-

tempted use, or threatened use of physical force” only if the

felony “always requires the government to prove” the use,

attempted use, or threatened use of force “beyond a reason-

able doubt, as an element of its case.” Ante, at 3 (emphasis

added); see Brief for Respondent 13–18. In other words, the

Court assumes that an offense X has an element A if and

only if convicting a defendant of X requires the Government

to prove A in every prosecution for offense X. Based on this

assumption, the Court infers that attempted Hobbs Act rob-

bery is not a “crime of violence” under §924(c)(3)(A) because

it is possible to commit that offense without attempting to

use force.

There is no textual basis for this reading, and I would not

adopt an erroneous interpretation that will govern a multi-

tude of cases just because the Government has made an im-

provident concession in this case. If the Court wants to hold

the Government to the position it has taken here, it can dis-

miss the case and give Taylor the benefit of the judgment

in his favor below. But a party’s mistaken argument should

not be permitted to alter the meaning of the law Congress

enacted.

Nothing in our precedent suggests that we should deviate

from §924(c)(3)(A)’s plain text. We have never interpreted

6 UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR

ALITO, J., dissenting

§924(c)(3)(A) to require a version of the categorical ap-

proach that would exclude from the elements that an of-

fense “has” those elements that may be proved as alterna-

tives to one another. The most we have said is that, in

applying the categorical approach to other statutory provi-

sions, statutes setting forth disjunctive or alternative ele-

ments should be analyzed through what we have called the

“modified categorical approach.” See Descamps, 570 U. S.,

at 260–264 (“burglary” under Armed Career Criminal Act,

18 U. S. C. § 924(e)); Shepard v. United States, 544 U. S. 13,

24–26 (2005) (same). Under this approach, courts must ex-

amine “a limited class of documents (for example, the in-

dictment, jury instructions, or plea agreement and collo-

quy)” to determine which alternative element of an offense

figured in the crime for which the defendant was convicted.

Mathis, 579 U. S., at 505.

As I have previously explained, the modified categorical

approach is difficult to apply, and I would not apply it here.

See id., at 536–544 (dissenting opinion); Descamps, 570

U. S., at 281–296 (ALITO, J., dissenting). Instead, I would

simply hold that because one of the elements of the at-

tempted Hobbs Act robbery is the attempted use of force,

that offense falls within §924(c)(3)(A)’s definition of “crime

of violence.”

But if we were to apply the modified categorical approach

in this case, the result would be the same. In his plea agree-

ment and associated statement of facts, Taylor admitted

that he and his accomplice intended to lure Silvester into

an alleyway, hold him at gunpoint, and take his money “by

force” in the event that he resisted. And Taylor and his ac-

complice took more than a substantial step toward realizing

this plan. After all, they ultimately shot and killed Sil-

vester. So in accepting Taylor’s plea, it is plain that the

sentencing judge determined that Taylor had intended to

commit Hobbs Act robbery by using force and had taken a

substantial step toward the accomplishment of that end.

Cite as: 596 U. S. ____ (2022) 7

ALITO, J., dissenting

That is more than sufficient to show that Taylor’s actual

crime “ha[d] as an element the . . . use of physical force

against the person . . . of another.” §924(c)(3)(A).

For these reasons, I believe that the Court’s approach and

ultimate holding in this case are misguided. I would hold

that Taylor committed a “crime of violence” within the

meaning of §924(c)(3)(A) and reverse the judgment of the

Fourth Circuit below. But there is a silver lining in the ma-

jority opinion. Because the Court assumes—and does not

hold—that alternative elements do not qualify as independ-

ent elements of a crime for purposes of applying

§924(c)(3)(A), the Government remains free to advance the

correct interpretation of that provision in a future case. For

my purposes, however, the text of the statute is clear

enough to support reversal here and now. As a result, I

respectfully dissent.