The Third Circuit’s Sexting Skeptics

More coverage and an update from the Legal Intelligencier on Friday's first ever federal appeals court hearing on sexing as child pornography: As the nation's first case involving criminal prosecutions of teenagers for "sexting" made its way to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, all three judges seemed skeptical of the prosecutor's claim that child pornography laws are violated when a teen transmits a nude image of herself. The three 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges also appeared poised to declare that former Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. violated the First Amendment rights of three girls with his threat of a ...

Sexting Goes to Court – Miller v. Skumanick

This just in from the Legal Intelligencier: A federal appeals court on Friday takes up the growing practice of "sexting" — in which teenagers transmit nude and semi-nude photos of themselves and others by phone — as the judges tackle the vexing question of whether such images can be deemed child pornography. The appeal in Miller v. Skumanick stems from a civil rights suit brought by three Wyoming County girls against then-District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. alleging that he violated their First Amendment rights with his threat of a child pornography prosecution if they refused to take a class he had designed to educate youths about ...

Masha Allen’s Celebrated Adoption – what went wrong?

Last month, Cambria County, Pennsylvania terminated the parental rights of one of the most celebrated adoptive parents of the last decade, Faith Allen. Russian orphan Masha Allen, who was a victim of sex trafficking when she was five years old, first came to public attention through a story in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette and later appeared on ABC Primetime, Nancy Grace and Oprah. Masha's story was also featured in the LATimes, Washington Times, and WESH news in Orlando. In 2006, Senator John Kerry passed a major piece of federal legislation in her name, Masha’s Law. Last month Masha was orphaned again when Faith’s parental rights were ...

Restitution for Child Pornography Victims – what the government must do

Thanks to Professor Paul Cassell for this post on The Volokh Conspiracy involving one of my cases: Yesterday U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota issued an interesting order regarding a restitution application in a child pornography case. In his order, found here, Judge Schiltz chastises the government for failing to pursue restitution for child pornography cases in his district, even though Congress has made restitution mandatory in such cases. Judge Schiltz wrote: This Court has recently handled a number of other child-pornography cases in which the United States Probation Office has identified victims who are ...

Masha Allen – staggering malefaction at every level

"A vast conspiracy of silence" allowed abuses to go on for years in "the most extraordinary abuse of power without regard for . . . the kids." This recent editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer referring to the judicial corruption scandal in Luzerne County could also apply to the case involving Masha Allen, another Pennsylvania judicial casualty. Unlike the situation in Luzerne County, however, countless individuals from Pittsburgh to Georgia knew about Masha's plight and failed to respond over and over again. This lack of imagination was more than just the "human error and system lapses" which allow terrorists to continue to board airplanes, but ...