Page:Denard Stokeling v. United States.pdf/30

Rh Johnson are not nearly as incongruous as the majority suggests.

To begin, take the majority’s assertion “that many States’ robbery statutes would not qualify as ACCA predicates,” ante, at 7, if the Court were to apply Johnson as it was written. The accuracy of this statement is far less certain than the majority’s opinion lets on. While Stokeling and the Government come close to agreeing that at least 31 States’ robbery statutes do have an overcoming-resistance requirement, see ante, at 7, that number is not conclusive because neither Stokeling nor the Government has offered an accounting of how many of those States allow minimal force to satisfy that requirement, as Florida does. Because robbery laws vary from State to State, and because even similarly worded statutes may be construed differently by different States’ courts, some of those 31 States may well require more force than Florida does. See, e. g., United States v. Doctor, 842 F. 3d 306, 312 (CA4 2016) (ruling that “there is no indication that South Carolina robbery by violence”–a statute cited by the Government here–“can be committed with minimal actual force”); see also Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, 549 U. S. 183, 193 (2007) (explaining that the categorical approach “requires a realistic probability, not a theoretical possibility, that the State would apply its statute to conduct that falls outside the generic definition of a crime”).