October 13, 2011

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 10/13, I handed back the Price-Rite case briefs, as well as distributing a key to the numbered comments that I made on the briefs. We then finally went over the Maine criminal statute regarding use of force in defense of premises, and how it might relate to the situation in Katko v. Briney. We started our discussion of the Glucksberg case, going over the consequences of whether a right is put into the box called "fundamental" or not. We will pick up next Tuesday with an examination of how the Court went about figuring out which box to put this right into. The additional assignment for Tuesday 10/18 is to read in the text the case of Texas v. Lawrence, starting on p.83 of the text, and briefing the case for yourselves.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 10/13, I distributed one handout, a Bangor Daily News editorial regarding strip searches and the Florence case. We went over several aspects of the Florence case and the Petitioners Brief: the vocabulary of "reasonable suspicion"; the vocabulary of strip searches; the four categories of questions of concern to the Justices that we discussed last week; and the precedents of Bell v. Wolfish and Turner v. Safley, and the way that the Florence brief tries to distinguish those cases. The assignment for Tuesday 10/18 is to read the oral argument transcript in the case, paying particular attention to those questions by the Justices that highlight ambiguities in the Petitioners brief, (At the end of the week the Court should also post the audio of that oral argument, so that you can listen and read along at the same time.)