United States v. Clemens (8th Cir. 2021)

United States v. Clemens, No. 20-1180 (8th Cir. 2021)

Nature of Case: Appellant was convicted of offenses related to receipt of child pornography in federal court and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, in addition to a term of supervised release with several conditions, amongst them that the Appellant not possess any pornographic or otherwise sexually stimulating materials. The court additionally ordered the Appellant to pay restitution to one of the children in the images that he was convicted of receiving. Appellant objected to these conditions, was overruled, and appealed.

Holding: The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, finding that the plain text of the federal restitution statute made the Appellant liable for all of the victim’s losses related to the illegal conduct regardless of when those losses were incurred in relation to a defendant’s conduct. The Court also affirmed the condition prohibiting the Appellant from possessing adult pornography, rejecting Appellant’s arguments that the condition was void for vagueness, was not reasonably related to his offense conduct, and violated the First Amendment.