Ratzlaf v. United States

William H. Rehnquist:

The opinion of the Court in No. 92-1196, Ratzlaf against the United States will be announced by Justice Ginsburg.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

This case presents a question of statutory interpretation.

Federal law requires banks to report cash transactions that exceed $10,000.00.

It is illegal to structure cash transactions above $10,000.00 to break them up into separate transactions to circumvent the reporting requirement imposed on the bank.

The law makes it a crime to willfully violate this prohibition.

Defendant Ratzlaf to pay off a large debt to a casino in Reno, Nevada purchase cashier’s check from many banks each check for less than $10,000.00 each from a different bank.

For this conduct he was convicted, fined, and sentenced to prison.

His conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Ratzlaf maintained that the willfulness specification in the law means that the government must prove he knew not only at the banks reporting requirement but of the prohibition on breaking up transactions to evade that requirement.

We agree that to give effect to the willfulness specification, the government had to prove Ratzlaf knew the structuring he undertook was unlawful.

Of course the trial judge did not so charged the jury.

Ratzlaf conviction cannot stand.

We therefore, reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

Justice Blackmun has filed a dissenting opinion in which the Chief Justice, Justice O’Connor and Justice Thomas concur.