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katiebotts18
katiebotts18
12.12.2020 • 
Arts

The U.S. Supreme Court came to a decision not long ago about the proper application of the word “use.” Briefly, the case in point was about a man named John Angus Smith who traded a handgun for cocaine. The law under which Smith was charged provided for a much more severe penalty—known as an enhanced penalty—if a gun was used in a drug-related crime than if no gun was involved. (In this case, the enhanced penalty was a mandatory thirty-year sentence; the “unenhanced” penalty was five years.) Justice Antonin Scalia argued that Smith’s penalty should not be enhanced because he did not use the gun in the way that the writers of the law had in mind; he did not use it as a gun. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor argued that the law requires only the use of a gun, not any particular kind of use. If you were a judge, would you vote with Scalia or with O’Connor? Construct an argument in support of your position.

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