Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1459_n7ip.pdf
Page Number: 22.0

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).