January 25, 2011

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Tuesday 1/25, we spent most of the class going over the transcript of the oral argument in Snyder v. Phelps. We discussed what the Justices want out of oral argument, what they are getting at with particular questions, and the role of partisanship in questions of the First Amendment. We will continue with that review of the oral argument on Thursday. The additional reading assignment for Thursday 1/27 is to read the Supreme Court's decision in Huster v. Falwell, 485 US 46 (1988). That decision can be found by searching Google for "485 US 46", which will direct you to a number of sites that report the complete text of the case (don't rely on any summaries of the case-read the entire opinion, including the brief concurring opinion).

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today I distributed two handouts; my version of the Katko v. Briney case brief, and the assignment which is reproduced below. We went over the Katko brief, and discussed the method by which the Iowa Supreme Court reached its decision, in terms of primary authority v. secondary authority, mandatory authority v. persuasive authority, and following, distinguishing, and extending precedent. We will finish up our discussion of Katko on Thursday. The assignment below is due next Tuesday 2/1, but the assignment for Thursday 1/27 is to read this Maine case, and write a draft of your case brief, so that we can discuss any stumbling blocks you may be encountering on Thursday. In class, I added a few additional instructions to the assignment: shorten up the causes of action and prior proceeding to quickly go over those portions of the case that did not enter into the Supreme Court decision, and skip entirely the defendant's counterclaim.


Assignment due Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The assignment is to do a Case Brief of the case of Lyman v. Huber, 2010 ME 139, ___ A3d. ____. 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 “2010 Opinions”

--select 2010 ME 139, Lyman v. Huber

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. Everything that 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 to each other, 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 your questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Tuesday 2/1, 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.