Cite as: 520 U. S. 259 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
subject to 10-year terms of imprisonment on each count, in addition to 1-year terms under the other five counts of conviction, see § 242. He was sentenced to consecutive maximum terms totaling 25 years.
A panel of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentence, 33 F. 3d 639 (1994), but the full court vacated that decision and granted rehearing en banc, 43 F. 3d 1033 (1995). On rehearing, the court set aside Lanier's convictions for "lack of any notice to the public that this ambiguous criminal statute [i. e., § 242] includes simple or sexual assault crimes within its coverage." 73 F. 3d 1380, 1384 (1996). Invoking general canons for interpreting criminal statutes, as well as this Court's plurality opinion in Screws v. United States, 325 U. S. 91 (1945), the Sixth Circuit held that criminal liability may be imposed under § 242 only if the constitutional right said to have been violated is first identified in a decision of this Court (not any other federal, or state, court), and only when the right has been held to apply in "a factual situation fundamentally similar to the one at bar." 73 F. 3d, at 1393. The Court of Appeals regarded these combined requirements as "substantially higher than the 'clearly established' standard used to judge qualified immunity" in civil cases under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983. 73 F. 3d, at 1393. Finding no decision of this Court applying a right to be free from unjustified assault or invasions of bodily integrity in a situation "fundamentally similar" to those charged, the Sixth Circuit reversed the judgment of conviction with instructions to dismiss the indictment. Two judges would not have dismissed the felony counts charging the oral rapes but concurred in dismissing the misdemeanor counts, while three members of the court dissented as to all dismissals.
We granted certiorari to review the standard for determining whether particular conduct falls within the range of criminal liability under § 242. 518 U. S. 1004 (1996). We now vacate and remand.
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