## Facts

- Ramon Arjona was indicted in federal court under the Act of May 16, 1884, which criminalized counterfeiting within the United States of notes, bonds, and other securities of foreign governments, banks, or corporations.
- The indictment contained three counts: two counts under § 6 (possession and related conduct involving plates used to print counterfeits of foreign notes) and one count under § 3 (counterfeiting foreign bank notes).
- The case largely turned on the constitutional validity and scope of Congress’s power to criminalize counterfeiting of foreign securities and related possession of counterfeiting plates, rather than on detailed factual disputes about the counterfeiting scheme.
- The case reached the Supreme Court on a certificate of division from the federal circuit court, which was divided on constitutional and pleading questions concerning the statute and indictment.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress has constitutional authority to punish counterfeiting of notes of a foreign bank or corporation and possession of plates used to print such counterfeits.
2. Whether an indictment must allege that the counterfeit instruments are issued by a foreign sovereign, or must expressly allege that the charged conduct is an “offense against the law of nations.”
3. Whether state power to punish similar counterfeiting conduct limits Congress’s ability to legislate in this area.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court upheld the statute as a valid exercise of congressional power and sustained the indictment.
- Congress may constitutionally punish counterfeiting of notes of a foreign bank or corporation and possession of plates from which such counterfeits may be printed.
- An indictment under the statute need not allege that the notes are issues of a foreign sovereign, and need not allege that the offense is an “offense against the law of nations.”
- Counterfeiting foreign securities, including corporate securities authorized to circulate under foreign public authority (especially bank notes and bills), qualifies as an offense against the law of nations.
- Federal authority to punish such conduct does not exclude state authority to punish the same act when it is also an offense against the state.

## Legal Principles

- Under Article I, § 8, cl. 10, Congress may define and punish offenses against the law of nations, including conduct occurring wholly within the United States when international law secures a relevant right to foreign nations or their people.
- Counterfeiting foreign securities—national or corporate—issued under sanction of public authority abroad, particularly circulating bank notes and bills, is an offense against the law of nations.
- Statutory validity under the Offenses Clause does not depend on Congress expressly stating that the statute enforces the law of nations.
- Criminal pleading under such a statute does not require “magic words” characterizing the offense as against the law of nations or alleging sovereign issuance, so long as statutory elements are charged.
- Federal and state jurisdiction may be concurrent: federal punishment of an offense against the law of nations does not bar state punishment of the same conduct as a state offense.

## Conclusion

The Court sustained federal criminal jurisdiction over counterfeiting foreign bank and corporate notes and possession of counterfeiting plates, holding that such conduct is an offense against the law of nations within Congress’s power to define and punish, and that indictments need not expressly plead either foreign sovereign issuance or the law-of-nations label.


United States v. Arjona, 120 U.S. 479 (1887)