01-3680, 01-3681 U.S. v. Urfer

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“Destroying other people’s property is malum in se, and thus is willful provided only that the defendant knows that he’s destroying another person’s property without the person’s authorization. Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 270-71 (1952); United States v. McCalvin, 608 F.2d 1167, 1171 (8th Cir. 1979) (per curiam); People v. Datema, 533 N.W.2d 272, 278 n. 15 (Mich. 1995). The defendants’ conduct obviously was willful in that sense. They had no more right to saw down the antenna poles because they thought the statute might be invalid as applied to them than they would be entitled to murder the commander of the ELF facility if advised by lawyer Dwyer that the federal murder statute could not validly be used to punish a murder committed for the purpose of disrupting the facility. Which is to say (though this is gilding the lilly) that the lawyer’s advice to these defendants was indeed unreasonable. Even if it were contrary to international law for a nation to possess nuclear weapons, domestic law could properly and does make it a crime ‘to correct a violation of international law by destroying government property.’ United States v. Allen, 760 F.2d 447, 453 (2d Cir. 1985); see also United States v. Maxwell, supra, 254 F.3d at 29-30; United States v. Komisaruk, supra, 885 F.2d at 497; United States v. Montgomery, 772 F.2d 733, 737 (11th Cir. 1985). It would be especially bizarre to suppose that antiwar activists have a right to disable the United States from using nuclear weapons when many other nations, not plagued by such activists, possess these weapons.

Affirmed.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Shabaz, J., Posner, J.