October 28, 2010

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 10/28, I distributed one handout, the case brief assignment which is due in one week, on Thursday 11/4. That assignment is copied below. We finished our discussion of the Gonzalez v. Raich case, and I also included the outcome in the follow-up case on remand to the Court of Appeals. We went over State v.Butler, and I also included the later U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed the same issue as Butler. The assignment for Tuesday 11/2 (election day--don't forget to vote) is to begin work on the Jeremiah T. case brief, and also read through p. 140 of the text.

Assignment due Thursday, November 4, 2010

The assignment is to do a Case Brief of the case of Guardianship of Jeremiah T., 
2009 ME 74, 976 A2d 955 . 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 “2009 Opinions”
--select  2009 ME 74, Guardianship of Jeremiah T

Brief all of the issues that you determine that the Court ruled on.

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/ 4, 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. Remember to work by yourselves; do not collaborate.

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.