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Page Number: 18

14 

DUBIN v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

read in a similar manner to its companions.  See McDon-
nell,  579  U. S.,  at  568–569.    “Uses”  is  quite  amenable  to
such a reading, and not just because of its indeterminacy.
As explained above, “using” another person’s means of iden-
tification to deceive or defraud is a common feature of iden-
tity  theft.    See  Webster’s  xi  (“the  fraudulent  . . .  use”  of  a 
means  of  identification  (emphasis  added));  Black’s  894
(when a defendant “uses the information to deceive others” 
(emphasis added)).

Congress thus employed a trio of verbs that capture var-
ious aspects of “classic identity theft.”  Flores-Figueroa, 556 
U. S.,  at  656.    There  is  “the  defendant  [who]  has  gone
through someone else’s trash to find discarded credit card 
and bank statements,” ibid., and thus has taken possession 
unlawfully.  There is the bank employee who passes along 
customer information to an accomplice, and thus transfers
it unlawfully.  Then there is use involving fraud or deceit 
about  identity:  “a  defendant  [who]  has  used  another  per-
son’s  identification  information  to  get  access  to  that  per-
son’s bank account.”  Ibid. 

Another canon of construction offers a further point in fa-
vor  of  this  narrow  interpretation.    The  Court  “assume[s]
that Congress used [three] terms because it intended each
term to a have a particular, nonsuperfluous meaning.”  Bai-
ley,  516  U. S.,  at  146.  Reading  §1028A(a)(1)’s  operative
verbs as tracking aspects of classic identity theft, each verb
has an independent role to play.  As the definitions reveal, 
identity theft covers both when “someone steals personal in-
formation about and belonging to another . . . and uses the 
information  to  deceive  others,”  Black’s  894  (emphasis 
added), and “fraudulent appropriation and use,” Webster’s 
xi (emphasis added).  Identity theft thus intermingles as-
pects of theft and fraud, misappropriation and deceitful use.
Section 1028A(a)(1)’s three verbs capture this complexity.
While “transfer” and “possess” conjure up two steps of theft,
“uses” supplies the deceitful use aspect.