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Page Number: 38

6 

UNITED STATES v. HANSEN 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

the majority notes that one legal dictionary “defines ‘abet’ 
as ‘[t]o encourage or set another on to commit a crime,’ ” and 
it cites other legal dictionaries that also use “encourage” to 
define “abet.”  Ante, at 7.  Similarly, the majority observes 
that  the  federal  “ban  on  soliciting  a  crime  of  violence  . . . 
penalizes those who ‘solici[t], comman[d], induc[e], or oth-
erwise endeavo[r] to persuade’ another person ‘to engage in 
[the unlawful] conduct.’ ”  Ibid.  Because the terms “encour-
age” and “induce” are used to define the crimes of solicita-
tion and facilitation, the majority concludes that the statu-
tory terms “ ‘[e]ncourage’ and ‘induce’ have well-established 
legal  meanings”  that  “incorporat[e]  common-law  liability 
for solicitation or facilitation.”  Ante, at 9. 
  This contention—that, because the broad terms that Con-
gress actually used are sometimes spotted in the definition 
of other, narrower words, the statute’s broad terms are lim-
ited  by  the  meaning  of  those  narrower  words  and  those 
words’ characteristics—is puzzling.  The majority cites no 
precedent for this novel approach to interpreting words in 
a statute.  And its logic falls apart in light of the English 
lexicon and how dictionary definitions tend to work. 
  Broad words are often used to define narrower ones.  So 
the fact that a word is used to help define another word does 
not necessarily mean that the former is synonymous with 
the  latter  or  incorporates  all  of  its  connotations.    For  in-
stance, the word “furniture” might be used in the definition 
of a “chair,” but not all pieces of furniture are chairs, nor do 
all pieces of furniture have four legs or other common chair-
like characteristics.  Similarly, “to move” is used to define 
“to  walk,”  “to  run,”  and  “to  fly.”    But  that  does  not  make 
these four terms interchangeable. 
  So, too, here.  The phrase “encourages or induces” is not 
synonymous  with  “solicits”  or  “facilitates”  (or  “aids  and 
abets”).  For example, among the other characteristics of so-
licitation  and  facilitation  (discussed  further  in  Part  II–C, 
infra) is the fact that they require “an intent to bring about