physical force
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 559 U.S. 133 - Johnson v. United States · 2010Most cited · 992 citing opinions
violent force — that is, force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person.
How the Supreme Court has restated “physical force”
Each Supreme Court definition of “physical force,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “physical force”
Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “physical force” — 1,445 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 5 definitions, chronological · 2010–2019
violent force-that is, force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person ." Id., at 140 , 130 S.Ct. 1265 (second emphasis added).
violent " force-that is, force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person." " Id., " at 140 , 130 S.Ct. 1265 .
force capable of causing physical pain or injury." Johnson v. United States, 559 U. S. 133, 140 .
a degree of force that is " violent, " "substantial," and "strong"-"that is, force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person." See id., at 140 , 130 S.Ct. 1265 ; see also id., at 142 , 130 S.Ct. 1265