Kids Producing and Distributing their own Child Porn
Children producing and distributing their own child pornography has long been a dream of child porn devotees and a nightmare for parents and law enforcement. Not surprisingly, digital technology combined with ease of distribution through social networks and e-mail has made this theoretical threat to children a sad reality.
This disturbing trend, most recently profiled at Wired, raises some thorny legal issues. As anyone who has followed this blog knows, I am no fan of child pornography or child exploitation, even calling for the execution of those found guilty of child ...
Home Schooling and Child Welfare Law – CA Speaks (again)
Last Friday, the California Court of Appeals issued a decision legalizing home schooling. The case, Jonathan L. v. LA County DFCS, was reheard by the Court after an earlier panel declared home schooling illegal on February 28, 2008. The resulting outcry lead to a petition for rehearing bolstered by almost four pages of amicus curiae including the ACLU, Jewish Homeschoolers of Napa and Sonoma Counties, the American Center for Law & Justice, and Members of the United States Congress.
What is mostly lost in the public debate about Jonathan L. is that it was brought as a ...
How to Strip Search a Middle School Student
Once again public school administrators, in their infinite wisdom and finely honed reasoning that only a Ph.D. can provide, have decided to strip search a 13 year old girl in the timeless pursuit of prescription-strength ibuprofen. And once again, a United States court of appeals has determined that this is unconstitutional.
According to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Redding v. Safford Unified School Dist. #1, the strip search of honor student Savana Redding "was neither 'justified at its inception,' nor, as a grossly intrusive search of a middle school girl to ...
Virtual Child Porn and Child Exploitation
Last month, in a widely criticized decision, the United States Supreme Court upheld criminal penalties for promoting virtual child pornography. The 7-2 decision in United States v. Williams, however, rightfully empowers law enforcement in the battle against the worldwide criminal networks where child pornography is freely produced, solicited and offered.
What most people do not realize is that child pornography is per se illegal. Although some child pornography might fall under the legal definition of obscenity, it does not have to be analyzed under traditional First ...
Pedophile Rapists win big at the Supreme Court
Today the United States Supreme Court issued the long awaited decision in the Kennedy v. Louisiana death penalty case discussed earlier this year. The Court held that the Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death.
In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Kennedy, the Court found that there is a "national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape" and that "the small number of States that have enacted the death penalty for ...
Child Rape = Death
Last week the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Constitution allows the death penalty for child rape. Sadly, this may be one case where bad facts make bad law. Although the rape in question caused horrific injuries to an 8 year old girl, there was no physical evidence linking defendant Patrick Kennedy to the crime. The conviction was based on largely circumstantial evidence and the victim's changed testimony which only fingered the defendant 20 months after the crime.
In reality Kennedy, who is girl's stepfather, is probably guilty and should be killed. ...
Individual Liability of Social Work Supervisors
Supervisors are often named as defendants in lawsuits even though they have no direct involvement in the event itself. Individuals alleging discrimination or other wrongful behavior in the workplace frequently sue both the agency and their supervisors. Such allegations may be made because plaintiffs seek to impute the supervisors’ actions to the agency. Notwithstanding such allegations, claims may also be made against supervisors in their individual capacities.
Some state and federal laws prohibit plaintiffs from suing their supervisor in their individual capacity. In ...