Cite as: 513 U. S. 64 (1994)
Stevens, J., concurring
and reject them for the reasons stated by the Court of Appeals in its opinion in this case.
Respondents also argued below that their indictment was fatally defective because it did not contain a scienter requirement on the age of minority. The Court of Appeals did not reach this issue because of its determination that § 2252 was unconstitutional on its face, and we decline to decide it here.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Reversed.
Justice Stevens, concurring.
In my opinion, the normal, commonsense reading of a subsection of a criminal statute introduced by the word "knowingly" is to treat that adverb as modifying each of the elements of the offense identified in the remainder of the subsection. Title 18 U. S. C. § 2252(a)(1) (1988 ed. and Supp. V) reads as follows:
"(a) Any person who—
"(1) knowingly transports or ships in interstate or foreign commerce by any means including by computer or mails, any visual depiction, if—
"(A) the producing of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
"(B) such visual depiction is of such conduct." (Emphasis added.)
Surely reading this provision to require proof of scienter for each fact that must be proved is far more reasonable than adding such a requirement to a statutory offense that contains no scienter requirement whatsoever. Cf. Staples v. United States, 511 U. S. 600, 624 (1994) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Indeed, as the Court demonstrates, ante, at 69-70, to give the statute its most grammatically correct reading, and merely require knowledge that a "visual depiction" has been
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