September 9, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 9/9, we finished off our discussion of the Haworth case. We went through the remainder of the defendants' contentions, and how the Court dealt with each one. We also talked about mistakes by the trial judge, the Feigons' attorney and Haworth's attorney. Along the way, we discussed the legal meaning of "privilege" and "malice", the questions of who has the burden of proof (plaintiff or defendant), what that burden consists of (beyond reasonable doubt, clear and convincing, preponderance of the evidence), and the levels of mental culpability (intent, knowledge, recklessness, negligence). On Thursday we will finally review the BDN article on Ormand Alley, and then go over O'Brien v. Hudock and the previously assigned pp. 1-15 of the text. We will also talk about the "Restatement"and types of authority. There is no additional assignment for Thursday 9/11 other than to review those materials, but you could, as time permits, read through p. 23 of the text.


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 9/9, we finished our discussion of the Riley case. We went over the nature of the balancing test for reasonableness (limited to exceptions to the warrant requirement), alternative arguments by the governments that were short of a Robinson-type blanket exception, and then the overall rationale of the Court's reading of the 4th Amendment. We began looking at the textbook, and I reviewed the county District Attorney and state Attorney General positions. We will begin on Thursday with an illustration of our Maine system in which the Attorney General and Governor may hold different political perspectives. We will then go on Thursday to discuss Katz, previously assigned in the text. There is no additional assignment for Thursday 9/11 other than to review the text materials, but you could, as time permits, read through p. 475 of the text (Jones).