Next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Ellingburg v. United States. The question presented is whether criminal restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) is penal and thus subject to the restrictions of the Constitution's federal Ex Post Facto Clause. This is an important issue for the crime victims' rights movement. If restitution is characterized as punishment rather than compensation, then the restrictions of the Ex Post Facto Clause (and perhaps other restrictions as well) apply to Congress and state legislatures as they craft restitution regimes. Because of the importance of the issue to the movement, I've joined Allyson Ho, Brad Hubbard, Matt Scorcio, and other lawyers at Gibson Dunn in filing an amicus brief urging the Court to affirm the judgment

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