Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-179_o75q.pdf
Page Number: 13

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

9 

Opinion of the Court 

2 
  Hansen,  like  the  Ninth  Circuit,  insists  that  clause  (iv) 
uses  “encourages”  and  “induces”  in  their  ordinary  rather 
than  their  specialized  sense.    While  he  offers  definitions 
from  multiple  dictionaries,  the  terms  are  so  familiar  that 
two samples suffice.  In ordinary parlance, “induce” means 
“[t]o lead on; to influence; to prevail on; to move by persua-
sion or influence.”  Webster’s New International Dictionary 
1269 (2d ed. 1953).  And “encourage” means to “inspire with 
courage,  spirit,  or  hope.”    Webster’s  Third  New  Interna-
tional Dictionary 747 (1966). 
  In Hansen’s view, clause (iv)’s use of the bare words “en-
courages”  or  “induces”  conveys  these  ordinary  meanings.  
See  Brief  for  Respondent  14.    “[T]hat  encouragement  can 
include aiding and abetting,” he says, “does not mean it is 
restricted to aiding and abetting.”  Id., at 25.  And because 
clause (iv) “proscribes encouragement, full stop,” id., at 14, 
it prohibits even an “op-ed or public speech criticizing the 
immigration system and supporting the rights of long-term 
undocumented noncitizens to remain, at least where the au-
thor  or  speaker  knows  that,  or  recklessly  disregards 
whether,  any  of  her  readers  or  listeners  are  undocu-
mented.”    Id.,  at  17–18.    If  the  statute  reaches  the  many 
examples that Hansen posits, its applications to protected 
speech  might  swamp  its  lawful  applications,  rendering  it 
vulnerable to an overbreadth challenge. 

B 
  We hold that clause (iv) uses “encourages or induces” in 
its specialized, criminal-law sense—that is, as incorporat-
ing common-law liability for solicitation and facilitation.  In 
truth,  the clash  between  definitions  is  not much  of  a  con-
test.  “Encourage” and “induce” have well-established legal 
meanings—and  when  Congress  “borrows  terms  of  art  in 
which are accumulated the legal tradition and meaning of 
centuries of practice, it presumably knows and adopts the