Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1459_n7ip.pdf
Page Number: 19

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” 
clause”). 
§§924(c)(3)(A), (B).

(commonly 

“residual 

called 

the 

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