Opinion ID: 552750
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Count 9 Authorization Instructions

Text: 27 The IC is barred from arguing that we erred in construing 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2071(b) to require that a defendant possess knowledge of unlawfulness. Maj.Op. at 886. Despite its current protestations to the contrary, the IC never made, and thus waived, this argument. At no point in its brief did the IC dispute North's contention that knowledge of unlawfulness is a required element of this statute. North's reply brief emphasized that knowledge of unlawfulness meant actual knowledge, citing two cases in support--including United States v. Cullen, 454 F.2d 386 (7th Cir.1971), on which the IC now relies. 10 As a result, at oral argument both the court and North's counsel understood the question to be uncontested. The following dialogue took place during the opening argument of North's counsel. 28 QUESTION: Wait a minute. Knowledge of unlawfulness, it is agreed by both parties, is required under Count 9, not under Count 6. Is that correct? 29 MR. SIMON: That's correct, Your Honor, and in pointing out problems with the counts, there is no problem. It is absolutely clear that Count 9, the other count that I did want to address briefly, Count 9, those instructions clearly require reversal as to Count 9, because the instructions are undisputed that the law requires knowledge of unlawfulness. 30 Tr. at 37. If the IC had remained silent on this issue at oral argument we would surely have been entitled to assume that it had waived the contention it now raises, but the IC, in response, expressly conceded the point. 31 QUESTION: I am inclined to think you are correct that [Count 6] does not require knowledge of unlawfulness, as Count 9 does and you concede. And I think you say in your brief, and I think you are correct, that it requires at least knowledge of wrongfulness. Is that correct? 32 MR. LYNCH: Yes. Tr. at 73 (emphasis added). 11 33 The revisionist nature of the IC's current claim is further illustrated by its new found reliance in its petition for rehearing on dictum in Cullen, 454 F.2d at 392, which, according to the IC, conflicts with our view of the requisite mens rea. The IC did not cite Cullen in its brief or mention it at argument, as it surely would have done had it meant to raise the point it now argues. Thus, the IC never asserted in these extensive proceedings--until its petition for rehearing--that the test of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2071(b), the statutory section alleged to be violated in Count 9, could be satisfied by the government if it showed that a defendant should have known, in accordance with an objective test, that his conduct was unlawful. Indeed, Chief Judge Wald, who dissented from our original opinion, did not then dispute our characterization of the IC's argument as having agreed (or conceded) that actual knowledge of unlawfulness was required under Count 9. Compare Maj.Op. at 884-886 with Diss.Op. at 929, 930-932. 34 To be sure, Judge Ruth B. Ginsburg, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc on this Count alone, asserts that, notwithstanding all of the above, the IC did preserve in its brief the argument it now makes. She quotes from page 39 of the IC's brief: But an unreasonable belief that an order to lie to Congress or alter official records made such conduct legal no more negates guilt than would an unreasonable belief that the conduct itself had not been prohibited. The difficulty with this sentence, however, which is not specifically directed at Count 9, is that the same conduct was also alleged in Count 6 as violating Sec. 1505 and the IC did argue that it was not obliged to prove knowledge of unlawfulness as to Count 6. At no point in the IC's brief does the IC claim that it was not required to prove actual knowledge of unlawfulness to make out the violation of Sec. 2071, charged in Count 9. The closest the IC comes to that argument is its carefully crafted footnote 73 in which it claims that North cites no case holding that the state of mind required for violation of either Sec. 1505 or Sec. 2071 is precluded by an unreasonable belief that the conduct was authorized. We note that the sentence purposefully does not affirmatively argue the contrary. Authorization, moreover, is not necessarily the equivalent of lawfulness. The petition for rehearing clearly makes the new and broader argument that even if North believed (reasonably or not) that his conduct was authorized, he can still be convicted under Count 9--requiring the government to prove knowledge of unlawfulness--if his reliance on authorization to avoid illegality was unreasonable. The IC's brief avoided any analysis of the mental state required under Sec. 2071; footnote 73 glosses over that issue, eliding it with the mental state required by Sec. 1505. 35 In short, Judge Ruth B. Ginsburg's differing reading notwithstanding, it appears to us that for whatever reason (perhaps the lack of any supporting authority), the IC deliberately chose not to make the argument it now raises for the first time. We therefore believe that the IC's contention upon which it rests its petition for rehearing--that the panel [e]rroneously claim[ed] that the Government agreed that ... 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2071(b) 'requires subjective knowledge of unlawfulness for conviction,'  Pet. for Reh'g at 12 (quoting Maj.Op. at 886)--is a misstatement. In any event, we cannot imagine that this issue is en banc worthy in accordance with any of the principles that govern such determinations. We disagree with Judge Ruth B. Ginsburg's characterization of our reasoning in the case that was before us, which, after all, relies in part on a prior decision of this court. See United States v. Rhone, 864 F.2d 832, 835 (D.C.Cir.1989). The petition for rehearing, however, is based, not on a disagreement with the reasoning we employed in the case we decided, but rather on the new theory, previously disavowed, presented in the petition. Although we decline to entertain this revisionist argument at this late stage in the proceeding (whatever its merit or lack thereof), we do not see how the government (or the IC) could be barred from raising the argument in another case. So, on the assumption that the IC should not be treated any differently from other litigants before the court, we do not understand how it can be thought that its new claim is en banc worthy.