Stokeling v. United States

Decided January 15, 2019. Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 17-5554 · 586 U.S. 73 (2019) · Cited 348 times

Holding

The Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause encompasses a robbery offense that, like Florida’s law, requires the criminal to overcome the victim’s resistance.

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 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. The lineup is the syllabus’s disposition of who wrote and joined each opinion. Source: the opinion’s syllabus (supremecourt.gov).

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.

• Johnson v. United States · 559 U.S. 133 (2010)
• United States v. Castleman · 572 U.S. 157 (2014)
• Begay v. United States · 553 U.S. 137 (2008)
• Taylor v. United States · 495 U.S. 575 (1990)
• Johnson v. United States · 576 U.S. 591 (2015)
• Descamps v. United States · 570 U.S. 254 (2013)
• Russello v. United States · 464 U.S. 16 (1983)
• United States v. Wilson · 503 U.S. 329 (1992)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Ratzlaf v. United States · 510 U.S. 135 (1994)
• Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez · 549 U.S. 183 (2007)
• West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc. v. Casey · 499 U.S. 83 (1991)
• Clark v. Martinez · 543 U.S. 371 (2005)
• Samantar v. Yousuf · 560 U.S. 305 (2010)
• Welch v. United States · 578 U.S. 120 (2016)
• Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. · 442 U.S. 330 (1979)
• Sessions v. Dimaya · 584 U.S. 148 (2018)
• Rosales-Mireles v. United States · 585 U.S. 129 (2018)
• Hall v. Hall · 584 U.S. 59 (2018)
• Voisine v. United States · 579 U.S. 686 (2016)
• Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. · 442 U.S. 330 (1979)

Cited by

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

• Delligatti v. United States · 604 U.S. 423 (2025)
• Shular v. United States · 589 U.S. 154 (2020)
• Quarles v. United States · 587 U.S. 645 (2019)

Official text

Read the official opinion (PDF, supremecourt.gov)

Explore from here

Clarence Thomas’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2019). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-08-15. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).