## Facts

- Federal agents wiretapped the phone of a suspected cocaine dealer, Mohammed Said, and intercepted six calls involving Salman Khade Abuelhawa.
- In the calls, Abuelhawa arranged two separate purchases of cocaine in 1-gram amounts for his own use.
- Under the Controlled Substances Act, Abuelhawa’s conduct (simple possession) was a misdemeanor under 21 U.S.C. § 844, while Said’s sales were felonies under 21 U.S.C. § 841.
- The government charged Abuelhawa with six felony counts under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b) for using a telephone “in committing, causing, and facilitating” the felony distribution of cocaine.

## Issues

1. Whether a buyer who uses a telephone to arrange a misdemeanor drug purchase “facilitat[es]” the seller’s felony distribution, making the buyer guilty of a felony under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Fourth Circuit.
- The Court held that using a telephone to make a misdemeanor drug purchase does not “facilitate” felony drug distribution within the meaning of § 843(b).
- The Court rejected reading “facilitate” to its broadest dictionary meaning without regard to statutory context and structure.
- The Court reasoned that treating a purchaser’s arranging call as felony facilitation would conflict with Congress’s decision to punish the purchaser’s conduct more leniently than the seller’s.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory terms must be construed in context; a word’s possible breadth does not control when the overall statutory scheme points to a narrower meaning.
- When Congress sets different penalties for the two sides of a bilateral transaction, general “assistance” language (e.g., “aid,” “abet,” “assist,” “facilitate”) is not ordinarily read to convert the lesser-penalized party’s basic participation into liability for the other party’s greater offense.
- Interpreting § 843(b) to make a misdemeanor purchaser a felon based solely on using a phone would upset Congress’s penalty design distinguishing simple possession from distribution.

## Conclusion

A person who uses a telephone solely to arrange a misdemeanor drug purchase for personal use does not commit a felony under 21 U.S.C. § 843(b) by “facilitating” the seller’s felony distribution, because that reading would contradict the statute’s structure and Congress’s differentiated punishment for buyers and sellers.


Abuelhawa v. United States, 556 U.S. 816 (2009)