| Litigants: | Smith v. United States |
| Arguedate: | March 23 |
| Argueyear: | 1993 |
| Decidedate: | June 1 |
| Decideyear: | 1993 |
| Fullname: | John Angus Smith, Petitioner v. United States |
| Usvol: | 508 |
| Uspage: | 223 |
| Parallelcitations: | 113 S. Ct. 2050; 124 L. Ed. 2d 138; 1993 U.S. LEXIS 3740; 61 U.S.L.W. 4503; 93 Cal. Daily Op. Service 3929; 93 Daily Journal DAR 6966; 7 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 326 |
| Holding: | The exchange of a gun for drugs constitutes "use" of the firearm for purposes of a federal statute imposing penalties for "use" of a firearm "during and in relation to" a drug trafficking crime. |
| Majority: | O'Connor |
| Joinmajority: | Rehnquist, White, Blackmun, Kennedy, Thomas |
| Concurrence: | Blackmun |
| Dissent: | Scalia |
| Joindissent: | Stevens, Souter |
Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223 (1993), is a United States Supreme Court case that held that the exchange of a gun for drugs constituted "use" of the firearm for purposes of a federal statute imposing penalties for "use" of a firearm "during and in relation to" a drug trafficking crime.
In Watson v. United States, 128 S.Ct. 697 (2007) the court later decided that a transaction in the opposite direction does not violate the same statute (i.e., Smith holds that one "uses" a gun by giving it in exchange for drugs, but Watson holds that one does not "use" a gun by receiving it in exchange for drugs).
The defendant exchanged a firearm for cocaine and was convicted of drug trafficking. The prosecution claimed this triggered enhanced sentencing because of the "use" of the gun in the commission of a crime.[1] The defendant stated using a firearm for barter was not covered by the statutory meaning of "use".[2] The Supreme Court had found that in a subsection of the statute, firearms could be 'used' as objects of commerce rather than as weapons, implying that a similar understanding and interpretation of 'used' should apply to the disputed sentence.[3]