394 results for author: James R. Marsh
Foreign Policy Magazine Exposes International Orphan Myth
Last month, Foreign Policy Magazine ran a hard-hitting expose entitled The Lie We Love. It's premise: "Foreign adoption seems like the perfect solution to a heartbreaking imbalance: Poor countries have babies in need of homes, and rich countries have homes in need of babies. Unfortunately, those little orphaned bundles of joy may not be orphans at all."
Finally some truth in advertising. Here's reporter E.J. Graff on the international orphan myth:
We all know the story of international adoption: Millions of infants and toddlers have been abandoned or orphaned—placed on the side of a road or on the doorstep of a church, or left parentless due ...
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, ...
HIPPA vs. Adoption Privacy
About a month ago, a reader of this blog sent me an inquiry from the front lines. This social worker is experiencing a conflict between HIPPA and adoption privacy. She asked me to ask you for your professional opinion on this intriguing problem . . .
State law provides that all termination of parental rights and adoption proceedings are confidential and that no identifying information can be shared between or among service providers.
Baby is born drug-addicted and is treated by hospital and medical specialists. Birth mother releases baby who is placed for adoption. Baby requires frequent follow-up visits by the same medical team.
...
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 rape.
Homemade child porn which is directed, created, and distributed by the ...
Child Rape Death Penalty Case Dies
I know that I am once again courting controversy on this topic, but here it goes anyway.
Last week the Supreme Court declined to reconsider its controversial June ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana which sounded the death knell for the death penalty for child rape.
As you might recall, the Court based much of its reasoning on the emerging "national consensus" that the death penalty for rape is wrong. What no one seemed to realize at the time, however, was that Congress passed a law in 2006 specifically allowing the death penalty for child rapists under military law. Once Louisiana discovered this oversight they petitioned the Court for a rare re-hear...