The COVID Project
The record
- Level
- Legal authority
- Authority
- Burrage v. United States, 571 U.S. 204 (2014)
- Issued
- 2014-01-27 Jan. 27, 2014
- In force
- Jan. 27, 2014 (no end date recorded; counted as in force for 120 days)
- Character
- case
Operative words
The Controlled Substances Act does not define the phrase "results from," so we give it its ordinary meaning.... A thing "results" when it "[a]rise[s] as an effect, issue, or outcome from some action, process, or design."... "Results from" imposes, in other words, a requirement of actual causality. "In the usual course," this requires proof "'that the harm would not have occurred' in the absence of--that is, but for--the defendant's conduct."... courts regularly read phrases like "results from" to require but-for causality. Our interpretation of statutes that prohibit adverse employment action "because of" an employee's age or complaints about unlawful workplace discrimination is instructive.
Notes
The syllabus (571 U.S. at 205) records that the Court 'declines to adopt the Government's permissive interpretation of "results from" to mean that use of a drug distributed by the defendant need only contribute to an aggregate force.' Tri-State at 18 relies on Burrage at 216.