In the New York Times, Gideon Yaffe says that Democrats should embrace “a proposal favored by the right: a measure that would bolster the idea that a criminal conviction should require proof of what lawyers call ‘mens rea’ — literally, a guilty mind.” Why? Because it would be good for “the poor and racial minorities.” Yaffe may be right about what moves Democrats. But the principle here — that to be found guilty of a crime you should have to have a criminal intent — seems like a sound one even when applied to middle-class (or rich!) white people.