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The NAM joined with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the NFIB Legal Foundation and the National Wilderness Institute in an amicus brief supporting Supreme Court review of an Eleventh Circuit decision upholding 8-year prison sentences for individuals who imported lobsters into the United States in violation of Honduran regulations. The defendants were prosecuted under the federal Lacey Act, which prohibits importing fish and wildlife in violation of foreign laws. Our amicus brief argued that cases like this eliminate the requirement of mens rea, or criminal intent, from prosecutions for "public welfare offenses" by business people. Public welfare offenses typically have involved modest penalties for regulatory violations, but more laws are criminalizing such violations, and now the Lacey Act criminalizes violations of foreign laws. On 2/23/04, the Court declined to review this appeal.