petty offense
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 391 U.S. 194 - Bloom v. Illinois · 1968Most cited · 2,231 citing opinions
when the legislature has not expressed a judgment as to the seriousness of an offense by fixing a maximum penalty which may be imposed, we are to look to the penalty actually imposed as the best evidence of the seriousness of the offense
How the Supreme Court has restated “petty offense”
Each Supreme Court definition of “petty offense,” 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 “petty offense”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “petty offense” — 3,425 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 3 definitions, chronological · 1930–1968
- ORIGINAL
there may be many offenses called 'petty offenses' which do not rise to the degree of crimes within the meaning of article 3, and in respect of which Congress may dispense with a jury trial... Whether a given offense is to be classed as a crime, so as to require a jury trial, or as a petty offense, triable summarily without a jury, depends primarily upon the nature of the offense
According to 18 U.S.C. § 1, '(a)ny misdemeanor, the penalty for which does not exceed imprisonment for a period of six months' is a 'petty offense.