Liparota v. United States

Liparota v. United States

United States Supreme Court

471 U.S. 419 (1985)

Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The federal statute governing food stamp fraud provides that “whoever knowingly uses, transfers, acquires, alters, or possesses coupons or authorization cards in any manner not authorized by [the statute] or the regulations” is subject to a fine and imprisonment. 78 Stat. 708, as amended, 7 U.S.C. § 2024(b)(1). The question presented is whether in a prosecution under this provision the Government must prove that the defendant knew that he was acting in a manner not authorized by statute or regulations.

Petitioner Frank Liparota was the co-owner with his brother of Moon’s Sandwich Shop in Chicago, Illinois. He was indicted for acquiring and possessing food stamps in violation of § 2024(b)(1). The Department of Agriculture had not authorized petitioner’s restaurant to accept food stamps. At trial, the Government proved that petitioner on three occasions purchased food stamps from an undercover Department of Agriculture agent for substantially less than their face value. On the first occasion, the agent informed petitioner that she had $195 worth of food stamps to sell. The agent then accepted petitioner’s offer of $150 and consummated the transaction in a back room of the restaurant with petitioner’s brother. A similar transaction occurred one week later, in which the agent sold $500 worth of coupons for $350. Approximately one month later, petitioner bought $500 worth of food stamps from the agent for $300.

The controversy between the parties concerns the mental state, if any, that the Government must show in proving that petitioner acted “in any manner not authorized by [the statute] or the regulations.” The Government argues that petitioner violated the statute if he knew that he acquired or possessed food stamps and if in fact that acquisition or possession was in a manner not authorized by statute or regulations. According to the Government, no mens rea, or “evil-meaning mind,” Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246, 251 (1952), is necessary for conviction. Petitioner claims that the Government’s interpretation, by dispensing with mens rea, dispenses with the only morally blameworthy element in the definition of the crime. To avoid this allegedly untoward result, he claims that an individual violates the statute if he knows that he has acquired or possessed food stamps and if he also knows that he has done so in an unauthorized manner. Our task is to determine which meaning Congress intended.

Absent indication of contrary purpose in the language or legislative history of the statute, we believe that § 2024(b)(1) requires a showing that the defendant knew his conduct to be unauthorized by statute or regulations. “The contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted by intention is no provincial or transient notion. It is as universal and persistent in mature systems of law as belief in freedom of the human will and a consequent ability and duty of the normal individual to choose between good and evil.” Thus, in United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U. S. 422, 438 (1978), we noted that “[c]ertainly far more than the simple omission of the appropriate phrase from the statutory definition is necessary to justify dispensing with an intent requirement” and that criminal offenses requiring no mens rea have a “generally disfavored status.” Similarly, in this case, the failure of Congress explicitly and unambiguously to indicate whether mens rea is required does not signal a departure from this background assumption of our criminal law.

This construction is particularly appropriate where, as here, to interpret the statute otherwise would be to criminalize a broad range of apparently innocent conduct. For instance, § 2024(b)(1) declares it criminal to use, transfer, acquire, alter, or possess food stamps in any manner not authorized by statute or regulations. The statute provides further that “[c]oupons issued to eligible households shall be used by them only to purchase food in retail food stores which have been approved for participation in the food stamp program at prices prevailing in such stores.” 7 U.S.C. § 2016(b) (emphasis added); see also 7 CFR § 274.10(a) (1985). This seems to be the only authorized use. A strict reading of the statute with no knowledge-of-illegality requirement would thus render criminal a food stamp recipient who, for example, used stamps to purchase food from a store that, unknown to him, charged higher than normal prices to food stamp program participants. Such a reading would also render criminal a nonrecipient of food stamps who “possessed” stamps because he was mistakenly sent them through the mail due to administrative error, “altered” them by tearing them up, and “transferred” them by throwing them away. Of course, Congress could have intended that this broad range of conduct be made illegal, perhaps with the understanding that prosecutors would exercise their discretion to avoid such harsh results. However, given the paucity of material suggesting that Congress did so intend, we are reluctant to adopt such a sweeping interpretation.

In addition, requiring mens rea is in keeping with our longstanding recognition of the principle that “ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity.” Application of the rule of lenity ensures that criminal statutes will provide fair warning concerning conduct rendered illegal and strikes the appropriate balance between the legislature, the prosecutor, and the court in defining criminal liability. See United States v. Bass, supra, at 348 (“[B]ecause of the seriousness of criminal penalties, and because criminal punishment usually represents the moral condemnation of the community, legislatures and not courts should define criminal activity”). Although the rule of lenity is not to be applied where to do so would conflict with the implied or expressed intent of Congress, it provides a time-honored interpretive guideline when the congressional purpose is unclear. In the instant case, the rule directly supports petitioner’s contention that the Government must prove knowledge of illegality to convict him under § 2024(b)(1).

We hold that in a prosecution for violation of § 2024(b)(1), the Government must prove that the defendant knew that his acquisition or possession of food stamps was in a manner unauthorized by statute or regulations. This holding does not put an unduly heavy burden on the Government in prosecuting violators of § 2024(b)(1). To prove that petitioner knew that his acquisition or possession of food stamps was unauthorized, for example, the Government need not show that he had knowledge of specific regulations governing food stamp acquisition or possession. Nor must the Government introduce any extraordinary evidence that would conclusively demonstrate petitioner’s state of mind. Rather, as in any other criminal prosecution requiring mens rea, the Government may prove by reference to facts and circumstances surrounding the case that petitioner knew that his conduct was unauthorized or illegal.

Reversed.

Justice Powell took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.

Justice White, with whom The Chief Justice joins, dissenting.

In relying on the “background assumption of our criminal law” that mens rea is required, the Court ignores the equally well founded assumption that ignorance of the law is no excuse. It is “the conventional position that knowledge of the existence, meaning or application of the law determining the elements of an offense is not an element of that offense . . .” Model Penal Code.

This Court’s prior cases indicate that a statutory requirement of a “knowing violation” does not supersede this principle. For example, under the statute at issue in United States v. International Minerals & Chemical Corp., 402 U. S. 558 (1971), the Interstate Commerce Commission was authorized to promulgate regulations regarding the transportation of corrosive liquids, and it was a crime to “knowingly violat[e] any such regulation.” 18 U.S.C. § 834(f) (1970). Viewing the word “regulations” as “a shorthand designation for specific acts or omissions which violate the Act,” we adhered to the traditional rule that ignorance of the law is not a defense. The violation had to be “knowing” in that the defendant had to know that he was transporting corrosive liquids and not, for example, merely water. But there was no requirement that he be aware that he was violating a particular regulation. Similarly, in this case the phrase “in any manner not authorized by” the statute or regulations is a shorthand incorporation of a variety of legal requirements. To be convicted, a defendant must have been aware of what he was doing, but not that it was illegal.

In Boyce Motor Lines, Inc. v. United States, 342 U.S. 337 (1952), the Court considered a statute that punished anyone who “knowingly violates” a regulation requiring trucks transporting dangerous items to avoid congested areas where possible. In rejecting a vagueness challenge, the Court read “knowingly” to mean not that the driver had to be aware of the regulation, see Id., at 345 (Jackson, J., dissenting), but that he had to know a safer alternative route was available. Likewise, in construing 18 U. S. C. § 1461, which punishes “[w]hoever knowingly uses the mails for the mailing ... of anything declared by this section or section 3001(e) of Title 39 to be nonmailable,” we held that the defendant need not have known that the materials were nonmailable. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 120-124 (1974). “To require proof of a defendant’s knowledge of the legal status of the materials would permit the defendant to avoid prosecution by simply claiming that he had not brushed up on the law,” and was not required by the statute.

In each of these cases, the statutory language lent itself to the approach adopted today if anything more readily than does § 2024(b)(1). I would read § 2024(b)(1) like those statutes, to require awareness of only the relevant aspects of one’s conduct rendering it illegal, not the fact of illegality. This reading does not abandon the “background assumption” of mens rea by creating a strict-liability offense, and is consistent with the equally important background assumption that ignorance of the law is not a defense.

I wholly agree that “[t]he contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted by intention is no provincial or transient notion.” Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246, 250 (1952). But the holding of the court below is not at all inconsistent with that longstanding and important principle. Petitioner’s conduct was intentional; the jury found that petitioner “realized what he was doing, and was aware of the nature of his conduct, and did not act through ignorance, mistake, or accident.” Whether he knew which regulation he violated is beside the point.