10 results for month: 01/2009
Cyber Conflict of Interest – Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center Calls Online Threats to Children Overblown
At first glance, the news in today's New York Times that "the Internet may not be such a dangerous place for children after all" will give many a sense of relief. Look closer, however, and you'll quickly discover that cyber-industry heavyweights have co-opted the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. By selling itself to the industry it is allegedly investigating, the Berkman Center has become both a shrill and a shield for the powerful well-funded online establishment.
First the "news." According to the NYT:
A task force created by 49 state attorneys general to look into the problem of sexual solicitation of children online ...
Court Denies Indefinite Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders
Last week the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a case of first impression, limited the federal Government's ability to place in indefinite civil commitment "sexually dangerous" persons under a federal law enacted as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006 [18 U.S.C. § 4248].
Section 4248 authorizes the federal government to civilly commit, in a federal facility, any "sexually dangerous" person "in the custody" of the Bureau of Prisons--even after that person has completed his entire prison sentence. To initiate commitment under Section 4248, the Attorney General need only certify that a person in federal custody is "sexually
dangerou...
Lawyer Ethics and the Registered Sex Offender
An associate who was fired from Kirkland & Ellis in 2004 after admitting he attempted to arrange a meeting "to engage in an oral sexual act" with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl has been suspended from practicing law in New York for three years.
In a rare 3-2 decision in a disciplinary matter, a five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division, 1st Department, agreed that Steven J. Lever "brought shame to himself and to this State's Bar" by using the Internet "to prey on minors for purposes of sexual gratification." They also agreed his conduct required "a significant sanction."
However, finding a dearth of New York precedent on point, ...