Frederick Mathews v. United States

485 U.S. 58 · Decided February 24, 1988 · Supreme Court of the United States

At a glance

Frederick Mathews v. United States was decided on February 24, 1988 by a vote of 6–2. The Court reversed the lower court's decision. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote the opinion of the Court. SCDB classifies its main issue as “Subconstitutional fair procedure, entrapment” in the Criminal Procedure area.

Read the opinion

• CourtListener (Free Law Project) — opinion text
• Library of Congress — official U.S. Reports scan

Case details

How the Justices voted

Did not participate: Anthony M. Kennedy.

Full case caption

Frederick Mathews v. United States

SCDB identifiers: case 1987-036, docket 1987-036-01.

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Cases on the same legal provision: Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure

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• United States v. John Doe, Inc. I
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• United States v. Mechanik
  475 U.S. 66Decided February 25, 19868–1William H. Rehnquist
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  474 U.S. 438Decided January 27, 19865–4Warren E. Burger
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  471 U.S. 453Decided May 12, 19857–2Per curiam

Same Term, same area (Criminal Procedure)

• Carpenter v. United States
  484 U.S. 19Decided November 16, 19878–0Byron R. White
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  484 U.S. 211Decided January 12, 19888–0John Paul Stevens
• Lowenfield v. Phelps
  484 U.S. 231Decided January 13, 19885–3William H. Rehnquist
• Taylor v. Illinois
  484 U.S. 400Decided January 25, 19885–3John Paul Stevens
• United States v. Owens
  484 U.S. 554Decided February 23, 19886–2Antonin Scalia
• United States v. Thomas O. Robinson, Jr.
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Source: Supreme Court Database, 2026 Release 01 (data file dated September 8, 2026). Imported into CaseTrail November 5, 2026. Coverage: decisions from the 1946 through 2025 Terms. Methodology · Report an error