Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1459_n7ip.pdf
Page Number: 28

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

11 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

predicate  crime  for  the  defendants’  §924(j)  convictions—
was  not  a  crime  of  violence  under  this  Court’s  elements-
clause  precedents.    929  F. 3d,  at  360–361.    These  are  not 
the only homicide-related §924 convictions that Davis has 
undermined.3 
  These  examples  show  how  our  precedents  have  led  the 
Federal Judiciary to “a pretend place.”  United States v. Da-
vis,  875  F. 3d  592,  595  (CA11  2017).    With  the  residual 
clause nullified, courts cannot look to it to capture violent 
crimes.  And, because of the categorical approach, the ele-
ments  clause  often  does  not  apply  because  “other  defend-
ants at other times may have been convicted, or future de-
fendants could be convicted, of violating the same statute 
without  violence.”    Ibid.    Like  Alice,  we  have  strayed  far 
“down the rabbit hole,” and “[c]uriouser and curiouser it has 
all become.”  Ibid. 

III 
  There  is  a  straightforward  solution  to  this  problem—
overrule  Davis.    Cf.  Borden,  593  U. S.,  at  ___  (opinion  of 
THOMAS, J.) (slip op., at 3) (“There is a straightforward so-
lution to this dilemma—overrule Johnson”).  It is a demon-
strably erroneous precedent that veered from the best in-
terpretation of §924(c)’s residual clause.  See supra, at 7–8 
(citing  Davis,  588  U. S.,  at  ___–___  (KAVANAUGH,  J.,  dis-
senting) (slip op., at 16–17)); cf. Johnson, 576 U. S., at 613 
(THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment) (noting this Court’s 
habit of wielding due process doctrines like vagueness “to 
achieve its own policy goals”).  Accordingly, I would overrule 
—————— 

3

 See, e.g., United States v. Capers, 20 F. 4th 105, 111–112 (CA2 2021) 
(applying United States v. Davis, 588 U. S. ___ (2019), and finding that 
a federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conspir-
acy resulting in a gangland killing could not predicate a §924(j) convic-
tion);  see  also,  e.g.,  Brief  for  United  States  in  Grzegorczyk  v.  United 
States, O. T. 2021, No. 21–5967 (Government conceding that, after Davis, 
a  federal  murder-for-hire  conviction  was  not  a  crime  of  violence  under 
§924(c)).