October 29, 2009

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 10/29, I distributed one handout, the next case brief assignment, which is due next Thursday, and which is reproduced below. Then we talked about the Butler case, both the majority and the dissenting opinions. I also went over the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case of Harris v. N.Y., in which a majority of the Court confirmed the majority decision in Butler. In addition to starting work on the Flaherty case brief, the assignment is to read through p. 145 of the text, which has the textbook discussion about Conflict of Laws.

Assignment due Thursday, November 5, 2009
The assignment is to do a Case Brief of the case of Flaherty v. Allstate Insurance, 2003 ME 72, 822 A.2d 1159. The case can be found on the website of the Maine Supreme Court.
To access the case, go to

http://www.courts.state.me.us/opinions/supreme/index.html

--select “2003 Opinions”

--select 2003 ME 72, Flaherty v. Allstate Insurance

Do not brief the final issue (Part IV) of the decision, but brief the other issues.

Follow the format from the Sample Briefs that I’ve distributed. Note especially that the Facts, Issues, and Holding are copied and pasted. Whatever you put into the Fact section should appear exactly in your Issue and Holding sections as well. Your Issue and Holding sections should be identical, except that the issue is a question, and the Holding is the answer to that question. Your briefs will be evaluated on the format, as well as the specific content.

Please make two copies of your brief, one to hand in at the beginning of class, and the other for you to have during class for our discussion.

You may e-mail me if you have questions about the brief. The more time that I have to answer our questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Thursday 11/5, you should still e-mail me your brief by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any grade deducted from your grade for the brief. If you do not, you should still contact me as soon as possible to see what options are available to you. (Generally, I do not want to accept assignments after we have discussed them in class). See the Syllabus for the class rules regarding late papers.

IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your brief to me, I will reply to confirm that I have received your assignment. If I do not reply, then I have not received the assignment.