Rea v. United States

350 U.S. 214 · Decided January 16, 1956 · Supreme Court of the United States

At a glance

Rea v. United States was decided on January 16, 1956 by a vote of 5–4. The Court reversed the lower court's decision. Justice William O. Douglas wrote the opinion of the Court. SCDB classifies its main issue as “Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure” 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

Full case caption

Rea v. United States

SCDB identifiers: case 1955-021, docket 1955-021-01.

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

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Same Term, same area (Criminal Procedure)

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  350 U.S. 356Decided February 27, 19569–0Per curiam
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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