Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1459_n7ip.pdf
Page Number: 26.0

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

9 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

ing could predicate a §924(c) conviction.  See id., at 376 (cit-
ing §1201(a)).  Walker and an accomplice had kicked in the 
door of a family’s home, held the victims at gunpoint, beat 
some of them, demanded money, and threatened to kill the
family’s  4-year-old  daughter,  all  before  locking  the  family
in  a  closet  and  ransacking  the  house.    Factual  Basis  for 
Guilty  Plea  in  United  States  v.  Walker,  No.  14–cr–00271, 
ECF Doc. 13 (MDNC, Nov. 3, 2014).  No one could dispute
that  Walker’s  conduct  presented  a  “substantial  risk  that 
physical force” would be used “in the course of committing
the  offense.”    §924(c)(3)(B).  Yet,  because  of  Davis,  the 
Fourth  Circuit  could  not  invoke  the  residual  clause.    See 
Walker,  934  F. 3d,  at  378.    That  left  only  §924(c)(3)’s  ele-
ments clause, interpreted according to the inflexible cate-
gorical  approach.    Compelled  to  imagine  whether  federal 
kidnaping  could  hypothetically  be  committed  without  the 
use of physical force, the Fourth Circuit ultimately vacated
Walker’s §924(c) conviction because a criminal could com-
mit the offense by “inveigl[ing]” a victim and then holding 
him in captivity with a “mental restraint.”  Id., at 378–379 
(emphasis deleted).1
  Second, in United States v. Tsarnaev, 968 F. 3d 24 (CA1
2020), reversed on other grounds, 595 U. S. ___ (2022), the 
First Circuit considered whether a terrorist’s conviction for 
federal arson—which he committed in the course of carry-
ing out the Boston Marathon bombings—counted as a crime 

—————— 

1 See also, e.g., United States v. Brazier, 933 F. 3d 796, 798–801 (CA7 
2019)  (federal  kidnaping  not  a  crime  of  violence  under  §924(c)  despite 
victim being bound, gagged, tortured, and shot); Bufkin v. United States, 
800  Fed.  Appx.  436,  437,  439  (CA7  2020)  (Government  conceding  that
federal kidnaping is not a crime of violence even when “the two defend-
ants threatened the victim at gunpoint, robbed, bound, and gagged him, 
and drove him around in the trunk of the car for four hours before releas-
ing him”); United States v. Sanford, 779 Fed. Appx. 568, 570 (CA10 2019)
(vacating §924(c) convictions even when the underlying conduct involved 
kidnaping, threatening, and robbing a family, all at gunpoint).