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US Court of Appeals rules federal civil commitment law unconstitutional...

Congress overstepped its authority when it enacted a law allowing the federal government to hold sex offenders in custody indefinitely beyond the end of their prison terms, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. AP News story here

The law allowing civil commitment of "sexually dangerous" federal inmates intrudes on police powers that the Constitution reserves for states, many of which have their own similar statutes, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

Civil commitment power "is among the most severe wielded by any government," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote. "The Framers, distrustful of such authority, reposed such broad powers in the states, limiting the national government to specific and enumerated powers."

In upholding a decision by U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt of Raleigh, North Carolina, the 4th Circuit became the first federal appeals court to rule on an issue that has divided courts nationwide. A judge in Minnesota reached the same conclusion as Britt, while courts in Hawaii, Oklahoma and Massachusetts upheld the measure.

Thursday's ruling is binding only in the states included in the 4th Circuit: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland.

U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said it was too early to comment on what steps the government might take next. The department could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court or seek a rehearing before the full federal appeals court.

Elizabeth Luck, a spokeswoman for the federal public defender's office in Raleigh, declined to comment. The public defender represented five inmates who challenged the law after they were kept in custody beyond the end of their sentences at the federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina.

Civil commitment was authorized by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which President Bush signed in July, 2006. The act, named after the son of America's Most Wanted television host John Walsh, also establishes a national sex offender registry, increases punishments for some federal crimes against children and strengthens child pornography protections. Those provisions are not affected by the ruling.

Study: Misbehaving teens at risk for major adulthood problems...

People who displayed behavioral problems as teenagers were likely to develop mental or personal problems in adulthood, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. CNN News story here

The study looked at more than 3,500 people, beginning in the teen years and following them for 40 years. The data came from a national survey of health and development from the Medical Research Council, an organization in the United Kingdom.

Teachers assessed these individuals at age 13 and 15, comparing them with their peers with respect to a number of behaviors. Problematic behaviors included disobedience, lying, lack of punctuality, restlessness, truancy, daydreaming in class and poor response to discipline.

"This research suggests that adolescent conduct problems are indicative of more serious problems in creating and maintaining positive social relationships, and this has a long-term effect on the young adult's ability to maintain good mental health, stable employment, and a happy family life," said Ian Colman, assistant professor at the University of Alberta's School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

The authors were surprised that even adolescents with milder behavioral problems had poor outcomes in adulthood, Colman said.

More than 1,000 adolescents in this study who had moderate, but not severe, conduct problems were more likely to leave school early or be involved in teenage pregnancy, and later in life had increased likelihood of divorce, alcohol abuse, and overall life adversity, he said. These people would probably not get a diagnosis of conduct disorder according to modern criteria, he said.

One caveat is that teachers assessed their students in 1959 and 1961, meaning they may have used slightly different criteria for the problem behaviors from what would be used today, Colman said.

While there are few studies tracking behavior over such a long period of time, a large body of research has arrived at the similar conclusion that problems that emerge in adolescence are risk factors for mental disorders, such as alcoholism, in adulthood.

In other news...

The Florida woman accused of killing her toddler daughter made a rare court appearance for a hearing regarding "disturbing" images of the scene where her daughter's skeletal remains were found. CNN News story here Video: MSNBC video link here The hearing began without Casey Anthony, as defense attorney Jose Baez saying she waived her right to appear. But prosecutors objected, saying Anthony should be brought into court and questioned before waiving her appearance. Anthony, 22, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, who was last reported seen in June. She was arrested in October and charged with first-degree murder and other offenses, even though Caylee's body had not been found. The girl's skeletal remains were found last month in woods about a half-mile from the home of Anthony's parents, where Caylee and her mother had been living. Authorities have been unable to determine how the girl died but said she was the victim of a homicide. Meanwhile, new video has surfaced in the Casey Anthony case that shows Cindy and George Anthony's private investigator in the same wooded area where Caylee's remains were eventually discovered. My Fox Orlando News story here VIDEO: New video surfaces in Casey Anthony case The Anthony's attorney, Brad Conway, saw the tape for the first time Sunday night and he's not very happy about it because he says the person who released that video had no right to do so. The video was shot on November 15, 2008 and shows the Anthony family's private investigator, Dominick Casey, searching through the wooded area where Caylee's body was discovered on December 11, 3 1/2 weeks later. For more background on this story, see vol6_iss78.

Texas authorities are seeking permanent custody of a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly married to jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, a step toward severing her parents' rights altogether. MSNBC News story here The girl had been placed temporarily in foster care in August after her mother refused in court to guarantee her safety. She is the only one of 439 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado to return to foster care. Documents and photos seized from the ranch showed the 14-year-old married at age 12 to Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her father allegedly performed the ceremony. Fredrick "Merril" Jessop was indicted in November on a charge of conducting a ceremony prohibited by law on July 27, 2006–the day his daughter was allegedly married to Jeffs. He has not yet entered a plea. For more on this story see vol6_iss78.

A married Boston area teacher was living a disturbed double life for nearly two years, police said, allegedly seducing a 13-year-old boy, plying him with booze and having sex with him on kitchen floors and couches, sometimes right under the nose of her husband. Boston Herald story here Christine A. McCallum, 29, who is on leave from her job at an Abington elementary school, was charged yesterday with seven counts of statutory rape for the serial liaisons in Rockland and Abington from February 2006, when she allegedly took the boy's virginity, to November 2007. Her alleged teenage conquest told police they had sex more than 300 times–almost “every other day” while he was 13, 14 and 15 years old. The boy told police they had sex for the first time February 7, 2006, on a couch at McCallum's Rockland home while her husband slept upstairs, according to a police report.

Mandatory curfew, electronic monitoring and other pretrial conditions for defendants indicted on child pornography offenses are unconstitutional, a federal magistrate judge has ruled. Law.com story here Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge James Francis said portions of amendments to the Bail Reform Act of 1984 promulgated by the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act violate the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment because they impose automatic restrictions on fundamental rights. In United States v. Arzberger, 08 Cr. 894, Francis said those accused of possessing child pornography are entitled to an individualized determination at a bail hearing before being ordered to follow a curfew with electronic monitoring, surrender their weapons and refrain from contacting anyone involved in their cases. Jason Arzberger's e-mail address was found by Europol agents during a search of the residence of an Italian producer of child pornography. When the agents learned that he had communicated several times in 2005 and 2006 with the producer about obtaining movies, an undercover FBI agent arranged to sell Arzberger pornographic DVDs depicting 12- and 14-year-old girls.

The Diocese of Cloyne (Ireland) failed to alert health authorities to a child sex abuse allegation, in contravention of existing child protection guidelines, a Health Service Executive (HSE) report has found. Irish Times news story here The report of a HSE audit, examining the handling of child-protection policies in Catholic dioceses cited evidence that the diocese was in breach of the Ferns child protection guidelines. The audit report said the Bishop of Cloyne John Magee had "acknowledged his error in this respect". It said misunderstandings relating to the roles and responsibilities in this area led to the failure.

A state senator wants to know if the Kansas social services department had any contact with an 11-year-old boy who went missing a decade ago but whose disappearance wasn't reported until this month. AP News story here Adam Herrman disappeared from his home in Towanda in 1999. His disappearance came to life last week when authorities acting on a tip searched the empty lot where his adoptive family's mobile home once sat. State Senator Jean Schodorf, the Senate assistant majority leader, said Friday she had asked Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, to look for any signs that authorities had needed to take Adam out of the home and whether the state played a part in his disappearance by not acting on them. The department and Derby police said they investigated at least two reports of suspected abuse of Adam in 1996 and 1998. Adam was in protective custody for two days following the 1996 report, but was returned to adoptive parents Valerie and Doug Herrman after authorities determined the report was unsubstantiated, Ponce said. Schodorf said Adam's adoptive parents withdrew him from a Derby public school and began home-schooling him around the time of his disappearance.

A plot to "shoot up" a western North Carolina high school was derailed by tip from a teen who chatted with the suspect online, authorities said. Fox News story here Investigators took a 15-year-old boy into custody Friday and found at his home a computer and DVD with plans for an attack on Brevard High School, Transylvania County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Brian Kreigsman said. Kreigsman said the plans were not elaborate, and would not say whether weapons were found. Kreigsman said the teen told a 16-year-old girl from New York earlier that day that he planned to "shoot up a school" on Monday. The two were chatting on the MySpace social networking Web site. "The potential was here for this to be a major threat," Kreigsman said. The girl pulled the boy into a private chatroom to get more information, Kreigsman said, and he referred to a shooting in Greensboro in 1979 in which white supremacists killed five people and wounded 10 others. The girl told authorities that the boy, who also referred to himself as the "Grand Dragon," then abruptly ended the conversation. After the online chat, the girl notified local authorities, which contacted North Carolina law enforcement.

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