McLaughlin v. United States
| McLaughlin v. United States | |
|---|---|
| Argued March 31, 1986 Decided April 29, 1986 | |
| Full case name | Lamont Julius McLaughlin, Petitioner v. United States |
| Citations | 476 U.S. 16 (more) 106 S. Ct. 1677; 90 L. Ed. 2d 15; 1986 U.S. LEXIS 146 |
| Holding | |
| An unloaded handgun is a “dangerous weapon” within the meaning of federal bank robbery laws. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinion | |
| Majority | Stevens, joined by unanimous |
| Laws applied | |
| 18 U.S.C. § 2113 | |
McLaughlin v. United States, 476 U.S. 16 (1986), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that an unloaded handgun is a “dangerous weapon” within the meaning of federal bank robbery laws. Justice John Paul Stevens' brief four-paragraph opinion in McLaughlin has been described by some analysts as "the shortest opinion by the Court in decades."