Morissette v. United States (342 U.S. 246)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 7, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 246 · 72 S. Ct. 240
- Docket
- No. 12
- Argued
- October 9, 1951
- Decided
- January 7, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Douglas
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This would have remained a profoundly insignificant case to all except its immediate parties had it not been so tried and submitted to the jury as to raise questions both fundamental and far-reaching in federal criminal law, for which reason we granted certiorari. On a large tract of uninhabited and untilled land in a wooded and sparsely populated área of Michigan, the Government established a practice bombing range over which the Air Force dropped simulated bombs at ground targets. These bombs consisted of a metal cylinder about forty inches long and eight inches across, filled with sand and enough black powder to cause a smoke puff by which the strike could be located. At various places about the range signs read “Danger — Keep Out— Bombing Range.” Nevertheless, the range was known as good deer country arid was extensively hunted. Spent bomb casings were cleared from the targets and thrown into piles “so that they will be out of the way.” They were not stacked or piled in any order but were dumped in heaps, some of which had been accumulating for four years or upwards, were exposed to the weather and rusting away. Morissette, in December of 1948, went hunting in this area but did not get a deer. He thought to meet expenses of the trip by salvaging some of these casings. He loaded three tons of them on his truck and…
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