April 7, 2011

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term 2011
In class today, Thursday 4/7, we went over the dissenting opinion in the 9th Circuit decision in the al-Kidd case. We discussed the different views about both absolute and qualified immunity, as well as going over the Rule 8 pleading issue and the Iqbal case. I also solicited ideas about what exactly should be the writing assignment for the al-Kidd case, and I hope to distribute that assignment next Tuesday. The class assignment for Tuesday 4/12 is to read the petitioner's brief in the U.S. Supreme Court for the al-Kidd case, available through the U.S. Supreme Court website (via the ABA site).


POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today , Thursday 4/7, I distributed one handout, the next case brief assignment, which is copied below. We went over the Hubbard case and the Land case from the textbook, and I also gave some background to the assigned Flaherty case. The assignment for Tuesday 4/12 is to begin work on the Flaherty case brief assignment.
Assignment due Thursday, April 14, 2011

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 your questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Thursday 4/14, 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.