The Supreme Court seemed unreceptive to the Biden administration’s arguments on Feb. 27 that a Texas man convicted of Medicaid fraud should also be convicted of aggravated identity theft arising out of the same transaction because a form he filed contained a patient’s name.
Several justices expressed concern that the government wants to interpret the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, which mandates a two-year prison sentence, so broadly that it could entangle potentially innocent individuals.
When President George W. Bush signed the act in July 2004, he said it would “dramatically strengthen the fight against identity theft and fraud,” but did not address the situation the court now finds itself concerned with….