December 9, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 12/9, we finished our discussion of Hubbard v. Greeson, and then examined Land v. Yamaha. Regarding Land, we first talked about the Erie Doctrine. We then went over the two bases of federal court jurisdiction, federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction. We also went through the difference between a Statute of Repose versus a Statute of Limitations. We saw how, in Land, the federal courts ended up applying the Indiana conflict of law rule created in Hubbard v. Greeson. Finally, I discussed the Maine case of Collins v. Trius, in which the Maine Supreme Court applied the Restatement test to decide whether to apply Maine or Canadian law regarding a limitation on damages. The assignment for Thursday 12/11 is to finish Chapter III (Finstuen).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 12/9, I distributed one handout, an excerpt from the Maine Rules of Professional Conduct regarding publicity in a case. We began our discussion by going over the cases (from the text) that expanded Batson to additional settings. We then went over the Sheppard case, looking at both what the Court decided, and what it left undecided. We looked at the handout, and how far Maine lawyers are allowed to go in trying their cases in the press before they are subject to punishment. I went through the case of Gannett v. DePasquale (from the text) that said that there was no right of the press to attend and report on court proceedings, and then we discussed Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, which had a different view. We got as far as Brennan's concurrence in Richmond Newspapers, which is where we'll pick up on Thursday. The additional assignment for Thursday 12/11 is to read in the text through p. 573 (up to the 8th Amendment).