United States v. Vernon Watts
Decided January 6, 1997. The Court ruled per curiam — an unsigned opinion of the Court.
Docket 95-1906 · 519 U.S. 148 (1997) · Cited 1,575 times
We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.
How the Justices voted
Decided 7–2.
Majority · 5
Concurring · 2
- Antonin Scalia · filed a concurring opinion
- Stephen Gerald Breyer · filed a concurring opinion
Dissenting · 2
- Anthony McLeod Kennedy · filed a dissenting opinion
- John Paul Stevens · filed a dissenting opinion
“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.
- McMillan v. Pennsylvania · 477 U.S. 79 (1986)
- Witte v. United States · 515 U.S. 389 (1995)
- Williams v. New York · 337 U.S. 241 (1949)
- Nichols v. United States · 511 U.S. 738 (1994)
- Burns v. United States · 501 U.S. 129 (1991)
- Gregg v. Georgia · 428 U.S. 153 (1976)
- Koon v. United States · 518 U.S. 81 (1996)
- BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore · 517 U.S. 559 (1996)
- Mistretta v. United States · 488 U.S. 361 (1989)
- Dowling v. United States · 493 U.S. 342 (1990)
- United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms · 465 U.S. 354 (1984)
Cited by
Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.
- United States v. Booker · 543 U.S. 220 (2005)
- Blakely v. Washington · 542 U.S. 296 (2004)
- Almendarez-Torres v. United States · 523 U.S. 224 (1998)
- Harris v. United States · 536 U.S. 545 (2002)
- Monge v. California · 524 U.S. 721 (1998)
- Alabama v. Shelton · 535 U.S. 654 (2002)
- Edwards v. United States · 523 U.S. 511 (1998)
Official text
Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)
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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). 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).