Using the Internet is NOT interstate commerce

A 10th Circuit case has decided that a guy found with child porn images in his possession cannot be convicted simply because he used the internet. The Government did not prove that he used the internet to get the child porn. The Court refused to indulge the very likely presumption that the guy got the porn off his computer. Instead, the Government should have proven the location of the guy's ISP, the ISP servers, or the website servers that he visited.

I generally agree that federal convictions should be based on proof that the defendant did precisely what Congress has forbidden, unaided by presumption or assumptions. This one, though, is a bit of a stretch.

But, it is even more interesting that the 10th Circuit would hold this view -- one that is virtually impossible to imagine ruling the day in the 5th Circuit, the 4th Circuit or the 7th Circuit. It matters where you are charged with a crime. The case is US v. Schaefer, No. 06-3080 (10th Cir. 2007).