Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-783_k53l.pdf
Page Number: 29

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

to use another person’s property is circumstance specific. 

Consider trespass.  When a person is authorized to enter
land and entitled to use that entry for one purpose but does
so for another, he trespasses.  As the Second Restatement 
of  Torts  explains,  “[a]  conditional  or  restricted  consent  to
enter land creates a privilege to do so only in so far as the 
condition  or  restriction  is  complied  with.”  §168,  p. 311 
(1964).  The Restatement includes a helpful illustration: 

“3. A grants permission to B, his neighbor, to enter
A’s land, and draw water from A’s spring for B’s own 
use.  A has specifically refused permission to C to enter
A’s land and draw water from the spring.  At C’s insti-
gation, B enters A’s land and obtains for C water from 
the spring.  B’s entry is a trespass.”  Ibid., Comment b. 

What is true for land is also true in the computer context;
if  a  company  grants  permission  to  an  employee  to  use  a 
computer  for  a  specific  purpose,  the  employee  has  no  au-
thority to use it for other purposes.  

Consider, too, the common understanding of theft.  A per-
son who is authorized to possess property for a limited pur-
pose commits theft the moment he “exercises unlawful con-
trol over” it, which occurs “whenever consent or authority
is exceeded.”  ALI, Model Penal Code §223.2(1), pp. 162, 168 
(1980).  To again borrow the language from §1030(e)(6), a 
police  officer  may  have  authority  to  “access”  the  depart-
ment’s bank account and “use such access” to cover law en-
forcement expenses, but he is nonetheless guilty of embez-
zlement  if  he  “uses  such  access”  to  line  his  pockets.    He 
would not be exonerated simply because he would be “enti-
tled so to obtain” funds from the account under other cir-
cumstances. 

Or take bailment.  A bailee commits conversion—which 
many  jurisdictions  criminalize—when  he,  “having  no  au-
thority to use the thing bailed, nonetheless uses it, or, hav-