If you buy a SS from someone how can you think that it’s legal?
Couldn’t it be from a dead person? Not a living person who’s identity you are trying to steal?
Or a “dummy number” that belongs to nobody?
I’m not taking the perp’s side on this. And I don’t know that much about the issue.
But it seems to me that if Scalia, Alito and Thomas voted for this that there must be more to it than what is seen on first glance.
Whether or not you think it's legal is not the issue (and, note that even after this decision, it is most certainly not legal to use a fake SS#, even if you don't know where it comes from). The issue is whether you know (and, thus, whether the government can prove you know) that you are using a number belongs to someone else.
Using a completely fake SS# is a crime, but it is not ID theft. Using a stolen SS# is a crime, but it is not Aggravated ID theft, as defined in the statute unless you know that the number belonged to someone else (rather than simply being fake).
This decision is nothing but the clear application of the explicit language of a duly-enacted statute. To rule the other way (though possibly desirable from an immigration-enforcement perspective: the more tools we have, the better) would be nothing less than judicial activism, which is unacceptable whatever the result.