Hanks v. United States

Issues: (1) Whether 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), which criminalizes the use of a firearm during a “crime of violence” – in this case, the federal bank-robbery statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2113 –may be violated by unintentionally intimidating a victim through verbal demands or the passing of a demand note rather than the use or threatened use of physical force, and whether the definition of the term “crime of violence” cabined in 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3)(A) is unconstitutionally vague on its face and unconstitutionally vague under the rule of lenity; and (2) whether there is currently a conflict among the U.S. courts of appeals and an ambiguity in the law regarding the federal statutory definition of the term “crime of violence,” and a conflict between the holdings of some circuits, specifically the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and the Supreme Court’s previous holdings regarding the constitutional viability of the current definition of the term “crime of violence” in Section 924(c) and related federal statutes.