McFadden v. United States
| McFadden v. United States | |
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| Argued April 21, 2015 Decided June 18, 2015 |
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| Full case name | Stephen Dominick McFadden, Petitioner v. United States |
| Docket nos. | 14–378 |
| Citations | 576 U.S. ___ (more) |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Opinion announcement | Opinion announcement |
| Prior history |
Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (753 F. 3d 432) United States v. McFadden, W.D. Va |
| Holding | |
| Under §841(a)(1) of the Controlled Substances Act, the government must prove the defendant knew he was dealing with a controlled substance when it is an analogue. United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated and remanded. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Thomas, joined by Scalia, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Concurrence | Roberts |
| Laws applied | |
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Controlled Substances Act Federal Analogue Act |
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McFadden v. United States, 576 U.S. ___ (2015), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that section 841 of the Controlled Substances Act requires the government to prove that to be in criminal violation, a defendant must be aware that an analogue defined by the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act with which he was dealing was a controlled substance.
The Controlled Substances Act regulates the manufacture, importation, possession, and distribution of certain substances determined in part by the original legislation and in part by the DEA and FDA. Under §841(a)(1), the Act makes it "unlawful for any person knowingly...to distribute...a controlled substance."
The Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986 extends the provisions for Schedule I controlled substances to all "controlled substance analogues" of those substances when intended for human consumption, instructing courts to treat them as the same.
In 2012, Stephen McFadden was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on one count of conspiracy to distribute and eight counts of distribution of controlled substance analogues intended for human consumption to another distributor in Charlottesville, Virginia. These substances were designer drugs known as "bath salts," specifically methylone, MDPV, and 4-MEC, considered to be illicit analogues under the Analogue Act. On January 10, 2013, McFadden was found guilty by a jury on all counts and was sentenced to 33 months of imprisonment and 30 months of supervised release.
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