Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Identity-Theft Law in Immigration Cases

The Supreme Court is deciding if people who make up Social Security numbers should be punished more severely when those numbers actually belong to someone. Some prosecutors say this is I.D. theft, others argue that point. DP

By ADAM LIPTAK and JULIA PRESTON

WASHINGTON — A federal identity-theft law that has become a favorite tool of the government in immigration prosecutions appeared imperiled on Wednesday after the Supreme Court heard arguments about it.

Prosecutors have relied on the law to seek or threaten two-year sentence extensions in immigration cases against people who used fake Social Security numbers that turned out to belong to real people.

“There’s a basic problem here,” said Justice John Paul Stevens. “You get an extra two years if it just so happens that the number you picked out of the air belonged to somebody else.”

Other justices also expressed skepticism about the government’s interpretation of the law.
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