The Supreme Court today ruled, 5 to 4, that federal law limits how much money victims of child pornography can recover from people who viewed their images online, reports the Associated Press. The opinion voided a a nearly $3.4 million judgment in favor of a woman whose childhood rape has been widely seen on the Internet. The justices said courts can order people convicted of child pornography to pay restitution to their victims, but only to the extent that there is a strong tie between the victim’s losses and the convicts’ actions.
In the case decided today, Doyle Randall Paroline was held liable by a federal appeals court for the entire amount of the woman’s losses, though his computer contained just two images of her. Justice Anthony Kennedy said for the court that federal judges should exercise discretion in awarding restitution. AP said the ruling steered a middle ground between the woman’s call for full restitution and Paroline’s argument that there was no relationship between his conduct and the woman’s losses, so that there should be no award of restitution.