What is the test for determining whether a federal court erred?

Although we find the district court erred, we also conclude that the error was harmless. An error of constitutional dimension may be held to have been harmless if the government can show " 'beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained.' " Satterwhite v. Texas, 486 U.S. 249, 108 S.Ct. 1792, 1798, 100 L.Ed.2d 284 (1988) (quoting Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967)). Appraisal of an error's impact depends on the nature of the violation in the context of a given factual setting. Hawkins

Page 1180