Children’s Law Center 2012 Annual Report

Here is the 2012 Annual report for the organization I founded in 1996. I am very proud of the amazing work Children's Law Center continues to do in the District of Columbia and beyond.CLC is a model children's law office whose impact is felt far beyond the District of Columbia. Congratulations to Executive Director Judith Sandalow and her dedicated and tireless team for everything you do for children. Your work has improved the lives of countless children and families and continues to set new standards for effective advocacy and professionalism. I am extremely lucky to see my vision become a reality far beyond my greatest aspirations!! Children&...

An Immodest Proposal

Guest blogger Dr. Abigail Bray wrote this several years ago. It's well worth republishing here. I think it is agreed by all parties that whoever could find a fair, cheap and easy method of making poor girls useful members of the economy, would deserve so well of the public, as to have her statue erected as preserver of the nation. To this end, I propose a method inspired by Milton Friedman. Let us recognise that the influence of Friedman’s deregulation thesis on third way social engineering is so profound that we can now say that the Chicago School of economics is the pinnacle of right-minded left wing practice. For example, George Papandreou, ...

Sixth Circuit – Dissent Criticizes Limited Restitution Options

In a forceful dissent, a judge in the latest child pornography restitution decision proclaimed that "to accomplish the difficult task of assigning financial responsibility to possessors of child pornography for the harm caused by their conduct, district judges should have all the tools provided by law at their disposal and should be permitted broad discretion to fashion an appropriate remedy." The case before the Sixth Circuit, United States v. Hargrove, was decided under controlling Circuit precedent which requires "proximate cause" before a district court can award restitution to a victim of child pornography possession. The dissent appropriately ...

Are child porn viewers less dangerous than we thought?

This recent commentary, by Slate.com columnist and journalist writer Emily Bazelon (who earlier this year wrote a New York Times Magazine cover story on the Marsh Law Firm's groundbreaking work on restitution for child pornography victims), is a reaction to the United States Sentencing Commission's recent report to Congress on federal child pornography offenses. Making child pornography is abuse. What about possessing it? As a group, these offenders—the ones who look but don’t abuse children to create new images—are serving increasingly long prison sentences. In 2004, the average sentence for possessing child pornography was about ...

D.C. Circuit Weighs Child Pornography Restitution Case

From the BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes, a recent post about the Marsh Law Firm's continued efforts on behalf of child pornography victims in the long-running Monzel case: The thorny question of how to calculate restitution to victims of child pornography came back before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week, with the U.S. Department of Justice defending a proposed formula. Friday's arguments marked the second time the court considered the case of Michael Monzel. Monzel pleaded guilty to one count each of distribution and possession of child pornography. A trial judge ordered Monzel to pay $5,000 to a victim known by the pseudonym ...

Amy and Vicky, Child Porn Victims: No Joint and Several Liability

From FindLaw, a post about the Marsh Law Firm's latest restitution case: You'd have to imagine, at some point, that either Congress (ha!) or the Supreme Court will step in and clear up the confusion surrounding restitution for those depicted in child pornography, as well as the issue of joint and several liability of the present day possessors of the images. Though they've denied certiorari in Amy and Vicky cases before, the flood of circuit court confusion and circuit splintering continues. Last September, the ABA Journal wrote an exhaustive feature on Amy and Vicky, the two victims who have had cases appear in nearly every federal Circuit Court ...

Restitution Returns to the United States Supreme Court (again)

Today, James R. Marsh of the Marsh Law Firm and Paul G. Cassell of the University of Utah College of Law Appellate Legal Clinic, filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court in their latest effort to convince the Court to consider the critical issue of criminal restitution for victims of child pornography. The case, Doyle Randall Paroline v. Amy Unknown, arises out of a long-fought extensively litigated restitution action which started almost four years ago before Judge Leonard Davis in the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division. In January, the defendant filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court seeking review of last ...

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