Opinion of the Court
§1028A(a)(1) to connote theft. While it is not necessary to determine the precise metes and bounds of these two verbs, their role in the provision points to this targeted reading. Section 1028A(a)(1) covers unlawful possession or transfer of a means of identification belonging to “another person.” Generally, to unlawfully “possess” something belonging to another person suggests it has been stolen. And to unlawfully “transfer” something belonging to another person similarly connotes misappropriating it and passing it along. In Flores-Figueroa, this Court drew a similarly intuitive link between a defendant taking a means of identification he knows belongs to another person and “ ‘theft.’ ” 556 U. S., at 655. The Government, at argument, agreed: these two verbs “refer to circumstances in which the information is stolen.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 90.[1]
“Transfer” and “possess” not only connote theft, but identity theft in particular. The verbs point to (1) theft of a (2) means of identification belonging to (3) another person. That tracks ordinary understandings of identity theft: “a crime in which someone [1] steals [2] personal information about and [3] belonging to another.” Black’s 894. Similarly, “the [1] fraudulent appropriation and use of [3] another person’s [2] identifying data or documents.” Webster’s xi. If this parallel were not enough, §1028A(a)(1)’s title indicates that the type of theft its verbs connote is identity theft specifically.
Because “transfer” and “possess” channel ordinary identity theft, noscitur a sociis indicates that “uses” should be
- ↑ Those who find legislative history helpful will find yet further support. “[P]ossesses” refers to “someone who has wrongly acquired another’s means of identification, but has not yet put it to use or transferred it elsewhere.” H. R. Rep. No. 108–528, p. 10 (2004). “[T]ransfers” is when the defendant “transferred it to another person or location where it can be put to use.” Ibid. And “uses” is when “a defendant … obtained someone else’s means of identification and actually put that means of identification to use.” Ibid.
