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Page Number: 25.0

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-