January 12, 2010

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Tuesday 1/12, I distributed three handouts: the syllabus, a list of the Justices, and selections from the U.S. Constitution. We went over them, and I also discussed last term's 6th Amendment case of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, and yesterday's oral argument in Briscoe v. Virginia, both dealing with the right to confront at trial the technicians who write up the crime lab reports used in many criminal trials. The assignment for Thursday January 14, 2010:
-Go to the Supreme Court’s official website:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
-select “Recent Decisions”
-select
R-5 12/7/09 09-91 Michigan v. Fisher
and read and prepare to discuss it for Thursday’s class (nothing written, just read both the majority and dissenting opinions and think about which you find more persuasive).