Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa (Defendant) was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa of aggravated identity theft. Flores-Figueroa appealed on the ground that the government had failed to establish that he acted with requisite guilty knowledge that numbers on the alien registration cards that he presented to his employer belonged to another person, as opposed to merely being counterfeit. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirmed on the theory that government did not have to make such a showing to satisfy mens rea requirement of the aggravated identity theft statute. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed and remanded....

Facts

Ignacio Flores-Figueroa is a citizen of Mexico. In 2000, to secure employment, Flores gave his employer a false name, birth date, and Social Security number, along with a counterfeit alien registration card. The Social Security number and the number on the alien registration card were not those of a real person. In 2006, Flores presented his employer with new counterfeit Social Security and alien registration cards; these cards (unlike Flores’ old alien registration card) used his real name. But this time the numbers on both cards were in fact numbers assigned to other people.....

1. List all the facts relevant to deciding whether Flores-Figueroa acted “knowingly.”

2. Summarize the government’s arguments that Flores-Figueroa acted “knowingly.”

3. Summarize Flores-Figueroa’s arguments that he did not act “knowingly.”

4. Which argument is the best mens rea policy regarding identity theft? Defend your answer.