Dowling v. United States

Decided June 28, 1985. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 84-589 · 473 U.S. 207 (1985) · Cited 268 times

Holding

Section 2314 does not reach petitioner's conduct.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• United States v. Turley · 352 U.S. 407 (1957)
• Morissette v. United States · 342 U.S. 246 (1952)
• Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. · 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
• Williams v. United States · 458 U.S. 279 (1982)
• United States v. Bass · 404 U.S. 336 (1971)
• Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises · 471 U.S. 539 (1985)
• Liparota v. United States · 471 U.S. 419 (1985)
• Rewis v. United States · 401 U.S. 808 (1971)
• United States v. Batchelder · 442 U.S. 114 (1979)
• Bell v. United States · 349 U.S. 81 (1955)
• United States v. Wiltberger · 18 U.S. 76 (1820)
• The United States v. Hudson and Goodwin · 11 U.S. 32 (1812)
• United States v. Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp. · 344 U.S. 218 (1952)
• McBoyle v. United States · 283 U.S. 25 (1931)
• Goldstein v. California · 412 U.S. 546 (1973)
• United States v. Lacher · 134 U.S. 624 (1890)
• Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder · 469 U.S. 153 (1985)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. · 579 U.S. 93 (2016)
• United States v. Kozminski · 487 U.S. 931 (1988)
• United States v. Aguilar · 515 U.S. 593 (1995)
• Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States · 544 U.S. 696 (2005)
• Wooden v. United States · 595 U.S. 360 (2022)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Harry Andrew Blackmun’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1985). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).