October 22, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 10/22, I distributed one handout, an article about a case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear defining the level of mental retardation below which it would be cruel and usual to execute a convict. We first went over the Suggs v. Norris case, going through the multiple questions that the North Carolina court considered. We also discussed generally the requirements for a valid contract, and the question of public policy regarding the enforcement of contracts. We then moved on to Gregg v. Georgia, going over the three opinions in the text. I went over a number of cases that have refined the concept of capital punishment, including Coker v. Georgia, Ford v. Wainwright, Thompson v. Oklahoma, Atkins v. Virginia, Roper v. Simmons, and Kennedy v. Louisiana. I also discussed two cases regarding life imprisonment sentences for juveniles, Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama. Finally we discussed the handout regarding mental retardation in the case just accepted by the Supreme Court, Hall v. Florida. On Thursday 10/24 we will have our first exam, open-book and open-note (but only your own). If you find that you are missing any handouts, please email me about what you need prior to class. If an emergency arises and you are unable to make it to class, you must email me asap to discuss alternative arrangements.

POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 10/22, we first finished our discussion of Davis. We covered the differing views on the relationship between exclusionary rule analysis and retroactivity analysis. We then went through the three assigned exclusionary rule textbook cases, Leon, Hudson, and Herring. We looked at how each of these cases expanded the exceptions to the use of suppression as a remedy for Fourth Amendment violations. On Thursday 10/24 we will have our first exam, open-book and open-note (but only your own). If you find that you are missing any handouts, please email me about what you need prior to class. If an emergency arises and you are unable to make it to class, you must email me asap to discuss alternative arrangements.