Abuelhawa v. United States
| Abuelhawa v. United States | ||||||
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 Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued March 4, 2009 Decided May 26, 2009 |
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| Full case name | Salman Khade Abuelhawa, petitioner v. United States | |||||
| Citations | U.S. [1] (more) | |||||
| Prior history | petitioner convicted 1:07-cr-00018-LMB (E.D. Va., 2007); affirmed 523 F.3d 415 (4th Cir.); reversed and remanded U.S. | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| A person who uses a cell phone to buy drugs solely for personal use (a misdemeanor) cannot be charged with the separate crime of using a phone to facilitate the sale of drugs (a felony). | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | Souter, joined by unanimous court | |||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| 21 USC §843(b)[1], §844(a)[2] | ||||||
Abuelhawa v. United States (Docket No. 08-192), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that a defendant who used a cellphone for the misdemeanor purchase of cocaine could not be charged with a felony for using a "communication facility" to facilitate the distribution of an illegal drug under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). In a unanimous opinion delivered by Justice Souter, the Court reasoned that the Government's interpretation of "facilitate" exposed a first-time buyer using a phone "to punishment 12 times more severe than a purchase by a recidivist offender and 8 times more severe than the unauthorized possession of a drug used by rapists," and was clearly not in line with Congress's intent, since it conflicted with the classification of the drug sale itself as a misdemeanor.
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