United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 8 (1999)

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282

UNITED STATES v. RODRIGUEZ-MORENO

Scalia, J., dissenting

against defendant in district where co-conspirator carried out overt acts even though there was no evidence that the defendant had ever entered that district or that the conspiracy was formed there). The kidnaping, to which the § 924(c)(1) offense is attached, was committed in all of the places that any part of it took place, and venue for the kidnaping charge against respondent was appropriate in any of them. (Congress has provided that continuing offenses can be tried "in any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed," 18 U. S. C. § 3237(a).) Where venue is appropriate for the underlying crime of violence, so too it is for the § 924(c)(1) offense. As the kidnaping was properly tried in New Jersey, the § 924(c)(1) offense could be tried there as well.

* * *

We hold that venue for this prosecution was proper in the district where it was brought. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore reversed.

It is so ordered.

Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Stevens joins, dissenting.

I agree with the Court that in deciding where a crime was committed for purposes of the venue provision of Article III, § 2, of the Constitution, and the vicinage provision of the Sixth Amendment, we must look at "the nature of the crime alleged and the location of the act or acts constituting it." Ante, at 279 (quoting United States v. Cabrales, 524 U. S. 1, 7 (1998), in turn quoting United States v. Anderson, 328 U. S. 699, 703 (1946)) (internal quotation marks omitted). I disagree with the Court, however, that the crime defined in 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)(1) is "committed" either where the defendant commits the predicate offense or where he uses or carries the gun. It seems to me unmistakably clear from the text of the law that this crime can be committed only where the

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