This is an important and informative decision in which Judge Singal explored at length the issue of whether (and under what circumstances) restitution to the victims of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2259 is an appropriate sanction for an offender convicted of possessing child pornography images of those victims ...

In a habeas petition seeking release from involuntary confinement in a psychiatric hospital, the denial of the petition is affirmed where the involuntary commitment standard in Kansas v. Crane, 534 U.S. 407 (2002), applies to insanity acquittees, but the New York courts did not unreasonably conclude that petitioner's continued involuntary ...

Defendant's conviction for conspiring to distribute or possess with intent to distribute cocaine is affirmed where the government was required to show only that defendant knowingly participated in a conspiracy involving a controlled substance.

[Editor's Note: For some cpmmentaries on this decision, see:

• "What You Don't Know Can't Hurt ...

In this remarkable sentencing memorandum, Judge Weinstein lashed out at "the pernicious and pervasive culture of corruption" on Wall Street; and cited "the need to reconsider how compensation is calculated [in] the financial industry".

Eric Butler, a former Credit Suisse securities broker, was charged with numerous counts of securities fraud ...

Here, the Court declined to clarify whether individuals held in custody by the U.S. may rely on the protections of the Geneva Convention - despite the vigorous dissent of two Justices who argued that the lower courts needed guidance on that issue.

In this case, the Supreme Court declined, without ...

Defendant's conviction for traveling in interstate commerce and failing to register or update his sex offender registration in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is affirmed where the fact that defendant had no actual notice of SORNA was not sufficient to render his prosecution pursuant to ...

Here the Court held that, even though Massachusetts prison officials had clearly violated the constitutional rights of the inmates, they were still entitled to assert the defense of qualified immunity since those rights were not clearly established.

This is another prisoner rights case involving the scope of the defense of ...

Here the Court held that forcing an inmate to undergo an exploratory abdominal surgery to determine whether or not he was hiding a cell phone in his rectum so clearly violates his constitutional rights that bars the defense of qualified immunity.

We warn you: the facts of this case are ...

In U.S. v. Berk, No. 08-CR-212-P-S (D.Me. Oct. 26, 2009) (P&J, 10/19/09), we noted that there is a significant and increasingly contentious debate developing among the district courts over the scope and proper application of 18 U.S.C. § 2259. Section 2259 provides in relevant part that, “notwithstanding section 3663 or ...

As readers of this newsletter are well aware, in recent years there has been an increasing number of Federal judges who have been outspoken in their criticism of the constantly escalating prison sentences called for by the advisory Guidelines in cases involving possession of child pornography. (See, e.g., U.S. v. ...