U.S. District Court: CONFISCATION.

• Position: Brief Article

Ballance v. Virginia, 130 F.Supp.2d 754 (W.D.Va. 2000). A state prison inmate who was convicted of sexual crimes involving juveniles brought a [ss] 1983 action against corrections officials alleging wrongful confiscation of photographs of children from his cell. The district court held that the confiscation complied with the First Amendment even though only a small percentage of photographs were of seminude children. The court noted that state officials provided minimum procedural safeguards, including notice of confiscation, provision of avenues for protest, and review of the prisoner's allegation of a First Amendment violation by someone who was not involved with the confiscation...