May 8, 2009, - 2:17 pm
Dumb Supreme Court Decision of the Month: “Ignorance is Bliss” Defense Now Valid for Illegal Aliens w/Fake IDs
By Debbie Schlussel
Meant to get to this earlier in the week, but didn’t. Still, this Supreme Court decision is so boneheaded that it’s as newsworthy on Friday as it was on Monday.
Even more incredible, a unanimous Supreme Court–that means Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts joined in on the dumbassity–found that the “ignorance is bliss” defense is fine for people using stolen social security numbers. That means, if you lie and claim you didn’t know the fraudulent SS#s you used were stolen, well, you’re not an identity thief.
Incredible:
A unanimous Supreme Court said Monday that undocumented workers who use phony IDs can’t be considered identity thieves without proof they knew they were stealing real people’s Social Security and other numbers.
The court’s decision limits federal authorities’ use of a 2004 law, intended to get tough on identity thieves, against immigrants who are picked up in workplace raids and found to be using false Social Security and alien registration numbers.
Advocates for immigrants had complained that federal authorities used the threat of prosecution on the identity theft charge, which carries a two-year mandatory prison term, to win guilty pleas on lesser charges and acceptance of prompt deportation.
And this “acceptance of prompt deportation” is a bad thing because . . .?
“These prosecutions have been taken off the table,” said Nina Perales, southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
MALDEF applauds. Gee, whatta shocker.
The court, in an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, rejected the government’s argument that prosecutors need only show that the identification numbers belong to someone else, regardless of whether the defendant knew it.
Breyer said intent is often easy to prove in what he called classic identity theft. “Where a defendant has used another person’s information to get access to that person’s bank account, the government can prove knowledge with little difficulty,” Breyer said.
PUH-LEEZE. The intent is implicit in the use of the Social Security number that isn’t yours. You know that it’s likely stolen. Res Ipsa Loquitur–the thing speaks for itself.
But immigrants without proper documentation need identity documents and often buy them from forgers, never knowing if they belong to anyone.
Again, PUH-LEEZE. If you believe that, then I have some land in Gaudalajara to sell you.
Such was the case with the undocumented worker on the winning side Monday. Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant employed at a steel plant in East Moline, Ill., traveled to Chicago and bought numbers from someone who trades in counterfeit IDs.
Unlike earlier fictitious numbers Flores-Figueroa used, these numbers belonged to real people.
Yes, I’m sure he investigated the previous ones to determine they were fakes and is just so upset these ones are real. Uh-huh, he was “duped” into knowingly buying Social Security numbers that weren’t his. Just as he was forced to come to America illegally and take a steel plant job.
Flores-Figueroa had worked at the plant under a false name for six years. His decision to use his real name and exchange one set of phony numbers for another aroused his employer’s suspicions.
Wow, real perceptive. Someone has two sets of social security numbers, and someone thinks that’s suspicious. Ya think?
He was arrested in 2006 and convicted on false document and identity theft charges.
He appealed his conviction as an identity thief.
Gaming the system. They all do it, ‘cuz we let ’em.
The Bush administration used the identity theft law hundreds of times last year. Workers accused of immigration violations found themselves facing the more serious identity theft charge as well, without any indication they knew their counterfeit Social Security and other identification numbers belonged to actual people and were not made up.
Tough noogies. They knew the numbers weren’t theirs. That should be enough.
But now it isn’t. Next, the Supremes will be telling us that a person who walks into a bank with a gun and asks for money isn’t doesn’t really know the gun is loaded, and therefore, no armed robby charges should follow.
Nauseating.
Even without Barack Obama in office, this is the kind of Supreme Court decision that is helping us lose our country and, certainly, its national security.
Now, what happens when all of these illegals challenge their deportations based on their use of false social security numbers? Don’t doubt they’ll be back to clog the court system with their challenges and appeals based on this boneheaded new legal precedent.
Read Vicki Crawford’s excellent column on this, “Ignorance is Bliss: Playing the I-Didn’t-Know Card,” in the Naples Daily News.
Lots of conservatives tell us that we should vote for Republicans and not stay at home. One of their main arguments is the importance of appointing Supreme Court judges that will follow the constitution and not make new law — by implication that they will follow conservative causes. Decisions like this should be kept in mind when arguments like this are raised.
c f on May 8, 2009 at 3:08 pm