Cite as: 524 U. S. 184 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
"carv[e] out an exception to the traditional rule" that ignorance of the law is no excuse 21 and require that the defendant have knowledge of the law.22 The danger of convicting individuals engaged in apparently innocent activity that motivated our decisions in the tax cases and Ratzlaf is not present here because the jury found that this petitioner knew that his conduct was unlawful.23
often arises even among taxpayers who earnestly wish to follow the law,' and ' "[i]t is not the purpose of the law to penalize frank difference of opinion or innocent errors made despite the exercise of reasonable care." ' United States v. Bishop, 412 U. S. 346, 360-361 (1973) (quoting Spies v. United States, 317 U. S. 492, 496 (1943))"); Murdock, 290 U. S., at 396 ("Congress did not intend that a person, by reason of a bona fide misunderstanding as to his liability for the tax, as to his duty to make a return, or as to the adequacy of the records he maintained, should become a criminal by his mere failure to measure up to the prescribed standard of conduct").
21 Cheek, 498 U. S., at 200; see also Ratzlaf, 510 U. S., at 149 (noting the "venerable principle that ignorance of the law generally is no defense to a criminal charge," but concluding that Congress intended otherwise in the "particular contex[t]" of the currency structuring statute).
22 Even before Ratzlaf was decided, then-Chief Judge Breyer explained why there was a need for specificity under those statutes that is inapplicable when there is no danger of conviction of a defendant with an innocent state of mind. He wrote:
"I believe that criminal prosecutions for 'currency law' violations, of the sort at issue here, very much resemble criminal prosecutions for tax law violations. Compare 26 U. S. C. §§ 6050I, 7203 with 31 U. S. C. §§ 5322, 5324. Both sets of laws are technical; and both sets of laws sometimes criminalize conduct that would not strike an ordinary citizen as immoral or likely unlawful. Thus, both sets of laws may lead to the unfair result of criminally prosecuting individuals who subjectively and honestly believe they have not acted criminally. Cheek v. United States, 498 U. S. 192 . . . (1991), sets forth a legal standard that, by requiring proof that the defendant was subjectively aware of the duty at issue, would avoid such unfair results." United States v. Aversa, 984 F. 2d 493, 502 (CA1 1993) (concurring opinion). He therefore concluded that the "same standards should apply in both" the tax cases and in cases such as Ratzlaf. 984 F. 2d, at 503.
23 Moreover, requiring only knowledge that the conduct is unlawful is fully consistent with the purpose of FOPA, as FOPA was enacted to protect law-abiding citizens who might inadvertently violate the law. See
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