The ruling says that when workers use a false SSN in order to work, they are not guilty of Identity Theft, unless they intended to harm the person who might actually have that SSN. In almost cases, that was not the worker's intent. Most didn't even know someone had that number already. - - Donna Poisl
By ADAM LIPTAK and JULIA PRESTON
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a favorite tool of prosecutors in immigration cases, ruling unanimously that a federal identity-theft law may not be used against many illegal workers who used false Social Security numbers to get jobs.
The question in the case was whether workers who use fake identification numbers to commit some other crimes must know they belong to a real person to be subject to a two-year sentence extension for “aggravated identity theft.”
The answer, the Supreme Court said, is yes.
Prosecutors had used the threat of that punishment to persuade illegal workers to plead guilty to lesser charges of document fraud.
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