Sam Cowin · April 2012
80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 885 (2012)
The federal courts of appeal have formed vastly different conclusions with respect to the reasonableness of Internet-use bans as a term of supervised release in virtual child pornography cases. All courts ground their decisions in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d), the federal statute governing supervised release conditions. Nonetheless, when presented with seemingly analogous facts, some courts uphold Internet-use bans, whereas others strike them down. Courts upholding such bans conclude that they constitute effective deterrents and ensure public safety. Courts overturning the bans, on the other hand, assert that they unreasonably deprive offenders of their liberty interests. Because decisions regarding the permissibility of Internet-use bans are, under the current statutory regime, incoherent at best and arbitrary at worst, Congress should amend § 3583(d) to provide judges with meaningful, cyberspecific guidance. Accordingly, this Note proposes that Congress adopt the UNIFORM Act, which sets forth child pornography–specific guidelines for determining the terms for supervised release. Inspired by the United States Sentencing Guidelines and extracted from the caselaw regarding the permissibility of Internet-use bans, the UNIFORM Act seeks to limit judges’ sentencing discretion in child pornography cases. At bottom, this Note posits a commonsense compromise, informed by existing statutes and caselaw, which would achieve consistency in an area of the law currently plagued by judicial ambiguity.
