Identity Theft Hurts

I’m almost tired of writing about identity theft, ya know?

On Monday the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that to convict an individual for identity theft, the defendant must have known that he was using the identity of an existing person.

From Daphne Eviatar’s article in the Washington Independent:

The case arose, as such cases usually do, in the context of an undocumented worker, Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, who submitted false documents to an employer to get a job. After his employer reported him, the government discovered that the social security number was real, only it was somebody else’s.  The government charged Flores-Figheroa with entering the United States illegally, misusing immigration documents, and identity theft.

He was convicted, and Flores-Figheroa appealed the identity theft charge, claiming he didn’t know the number he had belonged to anybody at all.  The court upheld the conviction anyway.

Today, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that law, which requires that the offender “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person” means exactly that — that the offender must know that he did it.

Fantastic. An employer can’t hire you without a social security card, (can’t file taxes on the employee without an SSN) but if an illegal immigrant “unknowingly” buys a fraudulent social security card/number, he or she is off the hook.

I have long believed that Social Security Numbers should be public record and searchable in a centralized database. The very mystique of trying to keep the Social Security Numbers secret, or private faciliates an underground counterfeit SS card industry. 

Thanks President Roosevelt!

I wish to extend a gracious offer to the justices of the Supreme Court: Please email me your social security numbers, I’ll post them on this blog without your names and should someone “unknowingly” use them to gain employment in the United States illegally, well, that would be your problem.

And that offer is extended to the “Friend of the Court Filers” at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

As a libertarian I appreciate what you do, but I hope you accept my gracious offer.

Respectfully,

John Barksdale