Data Security & Privacy

Identity Theft Law Targeting Immigrants Is Rejected by High Court

 
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that a federal identity theft law used to prosecute illegal workers who used fake social security numbers to obtain a job here in the United States was rejected.  The question in the case was whether workers who use fake identification numbers to commit some other crimes, must know the ID numbers belong to a real person to be subject to a two-year sentence extension for “aggravated identity theft.”  In answering that question in the affirmative, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. stated that the central flaw in the interpretation was that criminal liability turned on chance, or luck of the draw.  According to The New York Times, Justice Alito stated that “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.”
 
To read more about this case, please click here:  Justices Limit Use of Identity Theft Law in Immigration Cases

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