18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a) defines the crime of "aggravated identity theft." "Whoever, during and in relation to any felony violation enumerated in subsection (c), knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such felony, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 2 years." (Emphasis added.)

Among the listed offenses in (c) are false statements regarding citizenship and immigration matters. So does "knowingly" require that the person know the "means of identification" belong to someone else? I would think so, especially since the crime is "identity theft."

The Eighth Circuit said no in Flores-Figueroa v. United States, No. 08-108, and the Supreme Court today took it up. Defendant admitted he used fake IDs but says he didn't know the numbers on them belonged to real people. The Government did not dispute that the question was "certworthy" but said another case should be the lead. SCOTUSblog has lots of coverage. This is Kevin Russell's case.

This is the only cert. grant today.