Thompson v. United States
View Official PDFSummary
A short, plain-English overview of Thompson v. United States.
In Thompson v. United States, the Supreme Court addressed whether 18 U.S.C. § 1014 criminalizes misleading statements that are not false. Thompson was charged under § 1014 for allegedly making false statements to the FDIC about his loan amounts. The Court vacated the lower court's decision and remanded the case to determine if Thompson's statements were indeed false.
Holding
The single most important “bottom line” of what the Court decided in Thompson v. United States.
The Court held that Section 1014 does not criminalize statements that are misleading but not false.
Key Quotes
Short excerpts from the syllabus in Thompson v. United States that support the summary and concepts above.
"Section 1014, which prohibits 'knowingly mak[ing] any false statement,' does not criminalize statements that are misleading but not false."
"The statutory text criminalizes 'false statement[s]' but does not use the word 'misleading.'"
"A statute that applies to 'any false statement' does not cover all misleading statements, only the 'false' ones."
