Cite as: 537 U. S. 270 (2003)
Syllabus
crime. Second, this Court's view is that of almost all courts and commentators but for the Ninth Circuit. No other Federal Court of Appeals has adopted the Ninth Circuit's rule, and three have explicitly rejected it. The Cruz majority argued that the traditional rule threatened "endless" potential liability. But the majority's example illustrating that point—a sting in which police instructed an arrested conspirator to call all of his acquaintances to come and help him, with the Government obtaining convictions of those who did so—draws its persuasive force from the fact that it bears certain resemblances to entrapment, which the law independently forbids. At the same time, the Cruz rule would reach well beyond arguable police misbehavior, potentially threatening the use of properly run law enforcement sting operations. See Lewis v. United States, 385 U. S. 206, 208-209. Ninth Circuit precedent, whereby the language " 'the defendant . . . defeated its purpose' " in United States v. Krasn, 614 F. 2d 1229, 1236, was changed to "a conspiracy is presumed to continue until there is . . . defeat of the [conspiracy's purpose]" in United States v. Bloch, 696 F. 2d 1213, 1215 (emphasis added), may help to explain the Cruz rule's origin. But, since the Ninth Circuit's earlier cases nowhere give any reason for the critical language change, they cannot help to justify it. Pp. 274-277.
258 F. 3d 1069, reversed and remanded.
Breyer, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 278.
Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben argued the cause for the United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Olson, Assistant Attorney General Chertoff, James A. Feldman, and Jonathan L. Marcus. M. Karl Shurtliff argued the cause for respondents and filed a brief for respondent Jimenez Recio. Thomas A. Sullivan filed a brief for respondent Lopez-Meza.*
*Jay Alan Sekulow, Stuart J. Roth, Colby M. May, Joel H. Thornton, John P. Tuskey, and Shannon D. Woodruff filed a brief for the American Center for Law and Justice et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.
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