Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-158_6579.pdf
Page Number: 21

18 

BOND v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

course  Bond’s  conduct  is  serious  and  unacceptable—and 
against  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania.  But  the  background 
principle  that  Congress  does  not  normally  intrude  upon
the  police  power  of  the  States  is  critically  important.  In 
light  of  that  principle,  we  are  reluctant  to  conclude  that 
Congress  meant  to  punish  Bond’s  crime  with  a  federal
prosecution for a chemical weapons attack.

In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  this  unusual  case,  the
Federal Government itself has not looked to section 229 to 
reach purely local crimes.  The Government has identified 
only  a  handful  of  prosecutions  that  have  been  brought 
under  this  section.    Brief  in  Opposition  27,  n.  5.    Most  of  
those  involved  either  terrorist  plots  or  the  possession  of 
extremely  dangerous  substances  with  the  potential  to
cause  severe  harm  to  many  people.  See  United  States  v. 
Ghane,  673  F. 3d  771  (CA8  2012)  (defendant  possessed 
enough  potassium  cyanide  to  kill  450  people);  United 
States v. Crocker, 260 Fed. Appx. 794 (CA6 2008) (defend-
ant attempted to acquire VX nerve gas and chlorine gas as
part of a plot to attack a federal courthouse); United States 
v.  Krar,  134  Fed.  Appx.  662  (CA5  2005)  (per  curiam)  (de-
fendant possessed sodium cyanide); United States v. Fries, 
2012 WL 689157 (D Ariz., Feb. 28, 2012) (defendant set off 
a  homemade  chlorine  bomb  in  the  victim’s  driveway, 
requiring  evacuation  of  a  residential  neighborhood).  The 
Federal Government undoubtedly has a substantial inter-
est  in  enforcing  criminal  laws  against  assassination,  ter-
rorism,  and  acts  with  the  potential  to  cause  mass  suffer-
Those  crimes  have  not  traditionally  been  left 
ing. 
predominantly  to  the  States,  and  nothing  we  have  said 
here will disrupt the Government’s authority to prosecute 
such offenses. 

It  is  also  clear  that  the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Pennsylvania  (and  every  other  State)  are  sufficient  to 
prosecute  Bond.    Pennsylvania  has  several  statutes  that 
would  likely  cover  her  assault.  See  18  Pa.  Cons.  Stat.