United States v. Kennard Carter

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• explaining that dictionary definitions of “obliterate” “reasonably could embrace a requirement that a serial number be obliterated not just beyond the unaided eye, but also beyond scientific recognition”
• “[N]othing in . . . § 2K2.1(b)(4) suggests that any defacement must make tracing impossible or extraordinarily difficult.”
• noting that the language is “presented in the disjunc‐ 6 No. 16‐3752 tive” and holding that “even if we were to construe ‘obliter‐ ated’ as Carter urges … the sentence enhancement properly applies so long as the serial number is merely ‘altered’”
• examining the meaning of U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(4) according to the rules of statutory construction
• “[A] firearm's serial number is ‘altered or obliterated’ when it is materially changed in a way that makes accurate information less accessible.” (emphasis added)
• “[W]e follow the common practice of consulting dictionary definitions to clarify . . . ordinary meaning[].”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).