Court Opinion

ID: 9426047
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:16:35.418976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:24.061973
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Brennan*,
dissenting.
In Bell v. United States, 349 U. S. 81 (1955), this Court held that in criminal cases “[w]hen Congress leaves to the Judiciary the task of imputing to Congress an undeclared will, the ambiguity should be resolved in favor of lenity.” Id., at 83. I agree with Mr. Justice Douglas that “[§] 1955 is . . . most sensibly viewed as a statute directed at conspiracy in a particular context,” ante, at 795, and that the statute is at best silent on whether punishment for both the substantive crime and conspiracy was intended. In this situation, I would invoke Bell’s, rule of lenity. I therefore dissent.