rssLou Dobbs Smarter Than SCOTUS Conservatives — Or He Just Doesn’t Understand the Law
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 at 8:45 am
- 6 Comments
Remember Monday’s Supreme Court decision that logically pointed out that it doesn’t make sense to convict someone for “identity theft” if the worker using a fake social security number to get a job didn’t know that it actually belonged to someone? He could be convicted of other things, as was Ignacio Flores-Figheroa, the subject of the Supreme Court case. But identity theft? No, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously, with even the court’s conservative wing in agreement, he can’t be found guilty because he didn’t have the necessary intent to commit the crime.
Well, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is indignant.
“Do you feel better knowing that it’s legal for an illegal alien to steal your identity if he or she doesn’t know it’s yours?” he asked his audience Monday night.
Surprise – 97 percent of Dobbs’ viewers responded that no, they did not feel better knowing that.
Never mind that Figheroa was convicted of entering the U.S. illegally, and for misusing immigration documents — all of which he did intentionally do. Also, his conviction would have also been upheld for identity theft if he’d known that the fake documents reflected any existing person’s identity – he didn’t have to know whose.
Here’s how Justice Samuel Alito – no flaming liberal – explained the problem with the contrary position, which Dobbs apparently supports:
Under that [the government’s] interpretation, if a defendant uses a made-up Social Security number without having any reason to know whether it belongs to a real person, the defendant’s liability under §1028A(a)(1) depends on chance: If it turns out that the number belongs to a real person, two years will be added to the defendant’s sentence, but if the defendant is lucky and the number does not belong to another person, the statute is not violated.
In other words, conviction would depend on luck rather than criminal intent — which is, after all, an element of the crime.
Lucky for Dobbs it’s not a crime to intentionally mislead your television audience.
6 Comments
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 10:57 am
The law needs to be rewritten to exclude the term “knowingly.” The SCOTUS is as effed up at B. Hussein Obama and Jeorge W. Boosh…. look at the outrageous Kilo v. New London decision… and now this?
Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all. Their very presence here and practically everything they do on U. S. soil is illegal. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again. Enough is enough.
Watch The Obama Deception Here…. http://tinyurl.com/ObamaDeceptionHD
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 11:30 am
You are an idiot! What a stupid article. Whether the illegal alilen knew whose identity they had stolen or not they are still causing problems for the person's identity that was stolen. they should be prosecuted and then hung if convicted.
Comment posted May 6, 2009 @ 5:49 am
The point is that the illegal alien knew the number didn't belong to him, regardless of who it actually belonged to. He also knew that he was buying a fake social security card.
A social security number, like most anything, always belongs to someone from cradle to grave. Either the government owns it, before it is assigned to a legal citizen, or an individual owns it after it has been assigned. Either way, using a SSN number that does not belong to you is theft.
Think of the damage it does to you when an illegal alien uses your SSN for his tax withholdings and to file his tax return. The IRS is going to want you to pay his taxes owed or even accuse you of filing multiple returns. BTW – the IRS cannot tell who it actually belongs to. You're toast! Same thing for credit cards, loans, etc. You're ruined.
We teach our children this. Do not take things that do not belong to you unless you have permission. It's stealing!!
This is truly insane. Apparently even the Supreme Court is corrupt now.
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
A point that is forgotten is Figheroa would know that he was working illegally since it is required by law for the employer to verify the I9 Form of the employee against the SSA database before employment. SSA database verfies that the name, dob, and SSN all match. However, under the new law the argument could be made, was this knowledge disclosed to the defendant?
The supreme court makes the argument that proving knowledge in relation to subjects who steal people's personal identity is fairly easy, however, I beg to differ as I deal with this problem on a daily basis. Say I can prove the Subject obtained a person's identity and obtained a credit card fraudulently. I could show evidence that in order to obtain the card, three main identifiers of a person are used: Name, DOB, and SSN. For those three identifiers all to match is essentially a statistically anamoly (you have a better chance of winning the lottery.) However, the defense could simply than counter argue, “How do we know the victim “John Doe” is really “John Doe” and not “Greg Doe”? Hence, poking holes in the prosecution of showing the Subject had knowledge he stole th identity of a real person. How does one really prove they knew that the individual whom they were stealing the identity from was a real person unless that physically witnessed their birth. People obtain birth certificates every day through false claims. Any illegal on the street can walk down to the DMV and get a license.
The question at hand is why doesn't anyone care that identity theft cost are country billions of dollars every year and we just made it 10 times harder to prove the crime? I suppose if one of the Supreme Court judges had his identity stolen by an illegal worker he might feel a little differently about the matter as he spends the next 3 to 4 years trying to rectify the situation.
Comment posted May 21, 2009 @ 5:40 am
Lue what is wrong with guantanamo ?? keep them there !!!!
Comment posted May 21, 2009 @ 12:40 pm
Lue what is wrong with guantanamo ?? keep them there !!!!
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