Opinion ID: 532065
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Does the statute include a mens rea requirement?

Text: 20 Wallington also observes that section 1905 contains no express language imposing a mens rea requirement. He concludes from this omission that the statute creates strict criminal liability even for innocent disclosures of information. But quite to the contrary, it is well settled that 'far more than the simple omission of the appropriate phrase from the statutory definition [of the offense] is necessary to justify dispensing with' a mens rea requirement. United States v. Anderson, 885 F.2d 1248, 1253 (5th Cir.1989) (en banc) (quoting Liparota, 105 S.Ct. at 2088). The requirement of mens rea for criminal liability is a fundamental principle of Anglo-American common law. Congress is generally presumed to enact federal penal statutes against the background of our traditional legal concepts which render intent a critical factor, and 'absence of contrary direction [will] be taken as satisfaction with widely accepted definitions, not as a departure from them. United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U.S. 422, 98 S.Ct. 2864, 2873, 57 L.Ed.2d 854 (1978) (quoting Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 72 S.Ct. 240, 250, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952)); see also Anderson, 885 F.2d at 1254-55. Thus, we have read an implicit mens rea requirement into a number of criminal statutes that are silent on that element. See, e.g., Anderson, 885 F.2d at 1254-55; United States v. Delahoussaye, 573 F.2d 910, 912-13 (5th Cir.1978); United States v. Boerner, 508 F.2d 1064, 1067-68 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1013, 95 S.Ct. 2418, 44 L.Ed.2d 681 (1975); cf. United States v. Panter, 688 F.2d 268, 271 (5th Cir.1982) (reading a self-defense exception into statute prohibiting felons from possessing firearms). In doing so, we have followed the lead of the Supreme Court. See, e.g., Liparota, 105 S.Ct. at 2088; United States v. Bailey, 444 U.S. 394, 100 S.Ct. 624, 633, 62 L.Ed.2d 575 (1980); United States Gypsum Co., 98 S.Ct. at 2876. 21 We do not believe that Congress intended to create strict criminal liability and impose prison sentences of up to one year for innocent disclosures of information. Nothing in the scant legislative history of section 1905 gives any hint that such a harsh result was intended. 6 In the absence of strong indicia to that effect, we are unable to conclude that Congress meant to depart from the implicit background assumption that mens rea is required to commit a crime. Such a conclusion would run counter to our obligation to construe criminal statutes in favor of lenity. See Liparota, 105 S.Ct. at 2089. Because section 1905 is directed at unauthorized disclosures of confidential information, the appropriate culpability must at least include knowledge that the information is confidential in the sense that its disclosure is forbidden by agency official policy (or by regulation or law). 22