Free Republic

Sen. Mike Lee's "technological exploitation" bill also redefines consent.Is Congress really trying to outlaw all sex work? That's what some people fear the Preventing Rampant Online Technological Exploitation and Criminal Trafficking (PROTECT) Act would mean. The bill defines "coerced consent" to include consent obtained by leveraging "economic circumstances"—which sure sounds like a good starting point for declaring all sex work "coercive" and all consent to it invalid. (Under that definition, in fact, most jobs could be considered nonconsensual.) Looking at the bill as a whole, I don't think this is its intent, nor is it likely be enforced that way....

The media are not covering this story despite the FBI agent in the emails saying that most of the information has been confirmed. If the allegations are true Menendez could be prosecuted under the 2003 PROTECT ACT making travel and having sex with minors knowingly or not a federal offense with up to 30 years in prison. DOCUMENTS published online for the first time Thursday indicate that the FBI opened an inquiry into New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez on August 1, 2012, focusing on repeated trips he took to the Dominican Republic with longtime campaign contributor and Miami eye...

Posted on Sat, Sep. 02, 2006 Karr hires new lawyer in child porn case MARCUS WOHLSEN Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO - John Mark Karr, exonerated as a suspect in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, has asked a San Francisco lawyer to represent him as he awaits extradition to California to face child pornography charges. Robert M. Amparan is set to appear Tuesday in Sonoma County Superior Court to officially take over Karr's defense from the public defender's office, which has represented Karr in the case since it was first brought in 2001.

Congress passed the PROTECT Act in 2003, "which among other things reformed the federal criminal laws concerning child abduction and child pornography," Sensenbrenner said. "Among the provisions of the bill were reforms of the federal sentencing guidelines; particularly, reforms correcting abuse by federal judges of downward departure authority." Judges use "downward departure" when they hand down lighter sentences than called for under sentencing guidelines. The act requires that data be kept on individual judges showing how often they use "downward departure." ... Sensenbrenner also attacked what he called the Supreme "Court's increased reliance on foreign laws or judicial proceedings in...

A leading Christian humanitarian organization has joined with the federal government to protect children from the threat of American adults who travel to foreign countries to engage in sex with them. World Vision is assisting the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in enforcing the PROTECT Act (Prosecuting Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003), which passed in April 2003. The PROTECT Act increases the U.S. government’s abilities to prosecute U.S. citizens and legal residents who sexually exploit children in foreign countries. “Some pedophiles are motivated to commit child-sex...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist on Thursday lashed out at Congress for not seeking input from the judiciary before it approved a law aimed at forcing judges to follow tougher sentencing guidelines. "During the last year, it seems that the traditional interchange between the Congress and the judiciary broke down when Congress enacted what is known as the PROTECT Act, making some rather dramatic changes to the laws governing the federal sentencing process," Rehnquist said in his 2003 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary. Rehnquist, who heads a group of 27 judges that in September called...