Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-179_o75q.pdf
Page Number: 47.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

15 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

is not an easy fit for the solicitation and facilitation role in 
which the majority has cast it. 
  This statute is fundamentally different from aiding-and-
abetting liability and solicitation in other ways as well.  As 
noted, aiding-and-abetting liability is a form of vicarious li-
ability—i.e., a way in which a person becomes liable for the 
crimes of the principal.  Likewise, for solicitation, “the pun-
ishment  . . .  is  usually  geared  to  . . .  the  punishment  pro-
vided for the offense solicited.”  Wharton’s §9:11; see, e.g., 
18 U. S. C. §373(a) (providing, for example, punishment of 
“not  more  than  one-half  the  maximum  term  of  imprison-
ment . . . of the crime solicited”).  But, notably, a person who 
violates the encouragement provision is not punished as if 
he were a principal of the underlying offense, nor does the 
prescribed  punishment  depend  on  the  penalty  for  the  un-
derlying  offense.    So,  for  example,  even  if  the  underlying 
immigration offense is a civil violation, the person who en-
courages or induces that infraction could be punished by up 
to 10 years’ imprisonment for violating the encouragement 
provision.    Unlike  solicitation  and  facilitation,  then,  pun-
ishment for violation of the encouragement provision is not 
tied in any way to the punishment prescribed for the under-
lying offense. 
  It is also telling that aiding-and-abetting liability (but not 
solicitation) requires that the principal actually commit the 
underlying  offense.    2  W.  LaFave,  Substantive  Criminal 
Law §13.3(c) (3d ed. 2018) (“[T]he guilt of the principal must 
be established at the trial of the accomplice as a part of the 
proof on the charge against the accomplice”).  Yet, the en-
couragement  provision  on  its  face  does  not  require  that  a 
noncitizen actually enter or reside in the United States. 

  * 
  For these reasons, none of the traditional tools of statu-
tory  interpretation  makes  the  encouragement  provision 

  * 

*