United States v. Sablan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “.... We disagree with Gibson’s underlying premise that, in this case, the jurisdictional, element does not address a separate evil. Gibson views § 2111 as a robbery statute, treating the jurisdictional element as purely incidental. This assumption ignores the fact that Congress may have strong interests in treating crimes occurring within the jurisdiction of the United States differently from those occurring elsewhere. Thus, the jurisdictional element of a statute like § 2111 must be given substantive weight in making the Blockburger analysis. To begin with, the United States, like any other property owner, has an interest in protecting the safety of persons who enter upon its property. Strong symbolic reasons also dictate treating offenses within the jurisdiction of the United States differently. An ordinary crime may take on more significance if it occurs, for instance, in front of the White House, in a federal courtroom, in a national park, or on a military base; it injures not just the individual victim, but larger national interests.... Thus, we do not share Gibson’s assumption that a jurisdictional element does not reflect a legislative intent to combat a separate evil. Because the jurisdictional element may do just that, we see no reason to alter the Blockburger analysis.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 41 F. Supp. 3d 999 - United States v. Santiago