Supreme Court Speaks on Willful Blindness (6/2/11)

In Global Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB, ___ U.S. ___ (6/1/11), the Supreme Court spoke on willful blindness as meeting a statutory requirement of knowledge.  (The concept goes by several names; I have used "conscious avoidance" for the concept in several entries in this blog.)  The Court addressed the concept in a civil patent infringement case where the statute required that the party know that the induced acts constituted patent infringement.  The part on willful blindness in a criminal context is short, so I quote it in full (Slip Op 10-12):

The doctrine of willful blindness is well established in criminal law. Many criminal statutes require proof that a defendant acted knowingly or willfully, and courts applying the doctrine of willful blindness hold that defendants cannot escape the reach of these statutes by deliberately shielding themselves from clear evidence of critical facts that are strongly suggested by the circumstances. The traditional rationale for this doctrine is that defendants who behave in this manner are just as culpable as those who have actual knowledge. Edwards, The Criminal Degrees of Knowledge, 17 Mod. L. Rev. 294, 302 (1954)(hereinafter Edwards) (observing on the basis of English authorities that “up to the present day, no real doubt has been cast on the proposition that [willful blindness] is as culpable as actual knowledge”). It is also said that persons who know enough to blind themselves to direct proof of critical facts in effect have actual knowledge of those facts. See United States v. Jewell, 532 F. 2d 697, 700 (CA9 1976) (en banc).

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