October 8, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 10/8, I distributed one handout, my version of the Katko brief. We first talked about the White brief due Thursday, going over the format, and the three parts of the Issue. We then turned to the Katko case. We looked at primary versus secondary authority, mandatory versus persuasive authority, and following, distinguishing, and extending authority. We talked about the relationship between civil and criminal law, jury instruction, punitive damages, and bad lawyering. The assignment for Thursday 10/10 is to finish the White case brief, due at the beginning of class.

POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 10/8,I distributed one handout, my version of the King outline. We briefly went over that outline, and some of the common challenges that the class faced. We then turned our attention to the list of exceptions to the warrant requirement. I went over Missouri v. McNeely, the recent U.S. Supreme Court case about whether the destruction of evidence inherent in the delay in drawing blood to test for blood-alcohol level justifies warrantless seizures of blood. I then went over an even more recent Maine Supreme Court, State v. Ntim, regarding whether consent to a dog sniff and to a subsequent search was tainted by a prior unconstitutional dog sniff and search. We discussed the Gant case, and then started our discussion of Safford. We left off with the discussion of qualified immunity, which is where we'll pick up on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 10/10 is to read and prepare to discuss through p. 504 of the text.