Folks are speaking of a private suit. There is no ‘prosecution.’

Lawsuit scenario: Party A: prosecution, has more resources than Party B.

Thus party A is basically going to win by default, and make the other side bankrupt for life or worse. The system does enable this.

davod: What does this mean — AUP/TOS?

Acceptable Use Policy / Terms of Service.

bartman: So once again, evil goes unpunished due to the hard work of a bunch of smart people. I’m not superstitious, but I really hope karma exists.

Who says anything’s gone unpunished? The girl’s family can still, as one commenter put it, sue Lori Drew into oblivion (and I hope they do). But what Drew did just wasn’t a crime.

bartman: So once again, evil goes unpunished due to the hard work of a bunch of smart people. I’m not superstitious, but I really hope karma exists.

I don’t recall if there was pretrial bail or if the case was defended entirely pro bono. However, Drew’s having to come to Los Angeles and go through the experience of a federal criminal trial, listen to a guilty verdict live for a time with the uncertainty of post-conviction motions, is certainly some sort of punishment.

Guest101: A cynic might say it means the government remains free to bring harassing prosecutions on that basis without the impediment of a circuit court decision affirming the dismissal.

Yep. I plead irresistible impulse, which induced a rare fit of optimism about the human decency and good judgment possessed by our “public servants”. I blame Obama, or Bush, or somebody.

Cornellian: If I ever need an example of a case taken to establish an important principle on behalf of a client who is scum of the earth, this case will fit the bill.

Agreed. While I hope Lori Drew lives in ridicule and is shunned for the rest of her life, what she did was not criminal. And the over reaching of the prosecutor put a lot more people at serious risk. Thank you for your work on this. It was incredibly important work and a well deserved win.

So once again, evil goes unpunished due to the hard work of a bunch of smart people. I’m not superstitious, but I really hope karma exists.

The point wasn’t to stop someone from punishing evil. The point was to stop someone from punishing evil by hurting a lot of innocent people. Setting a precedent that violating a TOS is against the law would punish an evildoer–and put the rest of us in jeopardy.

A cynic might say it means the government remains free to bring harassing prosecutions on that basis without the impediment of a circuit court decision affirming the dismissal.

Steve: I got banned from the VC comments section over this case, dammit. I demand closure!

You? You’re the last guy I would have figgered.

Congrats to OK on getting the right result.

Of course, since the World of Warcraft gold farmers I’m investigating have violated the TOU of the game in furtherance of criminal copyright violations, 18 USC 1030 (a)(2)(C) should still apply, right?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by clening: @RT volokhconspiracy: Justice Department to Drop Lori Drew Appeal http://bit.ly/CqYsT...

Steve: I got banned from the VC comments section over this case, dammit. I demand closure!

Dropping the appeal means nobody will likely ever face federal prosecution for violating VC’s (or any other website’s) AUP/TOS. That sounds like pretty good closure to me.

Congratulations and thanks, Prof. Kerr

Now I hope the family of the girl she abused sue her into absolute ruin, such that she starves in a gutter — which would still be far better than she deserves.

Your descriptions of the reality of federal criminal litigation are light years from the unfounded, and, even worse, simply uninformed hysteria we are reading about the KSM case.