Federal assault statute precludes assimilation of similar state crime on federal lands

United States v. Harris, 2021 WL 3730008 (10th Cir. August 24, 2021) (WY): As a matter of first impression the panel holds that the federal assault statute, 18 U.S.C. sec. 113, precludes the assimilation of a Wyoming state assault statute. After a confrontation in Yellowstone National Park, a grand jury charged Harris, through the Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA), with Wyoming's threatening to use a drawn deadly weapon on another. The panel held that the ACA applies only if the act or ommission in question is not made punishable by any enactment of Congress. In the federal assault statute, Congress clearly and precisely delineated a range of conduct that qualifies as an assault within areas of federal jurisdiction. This statute indicates its intent to punish conduct such as Harris's to the exclusion of the Wyoming statute. Even though the Wyoming statute more accurately described Harris's alleged misconduct, that is not the test. Assimilating the more specific state law to punish the same conduct covered by sec. 113 would "substantially disrupt Congress's careful assault definitions." A state law also cannot be assimilated, when, like here, there is a difference in punishment: Wyoming's statute is a felony, whereas one of sec. 113's subsections is a misdemeanor. Nor can a state statute be assimilated just because it requires a different mens rea.