United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625 (2002), is a United States Supreme Court case that held the omission of a fact in a federal indictment that would enhance the maximum sentence is not a jurisdictional error and thus is not justification for a vacation of the sentence.

The prosecution did not state the quantity of drugs in the indictment, however the court later found Cotton responsible for 1.5 kg (53 ounces) of cocaine.

The Court of Appeals vacated the sentence on the grounds of a jurisdictional error by the amounts not being included in the grand jury indictments.

The opinion read as follows: The fairness, integrity, and public reputation of the judicial system depends on meting out to those inflicting the greatest harm on society the most severe punishments.

The real threat then to the "fairness, integrity, and public reputation of judicial proceedings" would be of respondents despite the overwhelming and uncontroverted evidence that they were involved in a vast drug conspiracy were to receive a sentence prescribed for those committing less substantial offenses because of an error that was never objected to in the Trial Court.This ruling in part overturned Ex parte Bain, 121 U.S 1 (1887).