Lorenzo Elias Mendez v. United States
FirstAmendment JusticiabilityDoctri
1. Whether the statutory term "lascivious exhibition " refers to the defendant 's act of exhibiting a minor 's genitals on film, or, in other words, to the visual depiction that the defendant attempted to produce, as the First through Eleventh Circuits hold; or whether it refers instead to a particular type of conduct in which the subject of the image must have engaged, as the D.C. Circuit holds; and
2. If the D.C. Circuit is correct, whether a defendant may be convicted of attempting to violate § 2251(a) and sentenced therefor to 20 years of imprisonment based solely on evidence that he surreptitiously filmed a minor masturbating?
Whether the statutory term 'lascivious exhibition' refers to the defendant's act of exhibiting a minor's genitals on film, or to a particular type of conduct in which the subject of the image must have engaged