Abuelhawa v. United States

Abuelhawa v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 4, 2009 Decided May 26, 2009
Full case name	Salman Khade Abuelhawa, petitioner v. United States
Docket no.	08-192
Citations	556 U.S. 816 (more) 129 S. Ct. 2102; 173 L. Ed. 2d 982
Case history
Prior	Petitioner convicted, 1:07-cr-00018-LMB (E.D. Va. 2007); affirmed, 523 F.3d 415 (4th Cir. 2008).
Holding
The use of a cell phone to purchase a misdemeanor amount of drugs does not rise to the level of it being a "communication facility" for the purposes of felony drug distribution.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinion
Majority	Souter, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
21 U.S.C. § 843(b); 21 U.S.C. § 844(a)

Abuelhawa v. United States, 556 U.S. 816 (2009), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a defendant who used a cellphone for the misdemeanor purchase of cocaine could not be charged with a felony for using a "communication facility" to facilitate the distribution of an illegal drug under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b).^[1]