November 7, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 11/7, I distributed two handouts: Assignment #2, and the case you'll be briefing, Raich v. Gonzalez. This assignment (reproduced below) is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, November 14, 2013. If you were not in class and want me to email the case to you, contact me right away. We then went over the textbook cases of Reardon and Caperton. The assignment for Tuesday 11/12 is to begin work on the Raich case brief, and to read in the text through p. 97.

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the edited version of the case of Raich v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d 850 (9th Cir. 2007) that I distributed. This is the case on remand to the Court of Appeals after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the text.

Brief all of the issues that you determine that the Court ruled on. Remember that the purpose of the brief is to be useful. Check your holdings to make sure that they give the most useful rules possible. Mere conclusory facts just tell us who won and who lost, but not what circumstances determine the winner and loser.

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 specific 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 11/14, 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.

Remember to work by yourselves; do not collaborate. All the work must be your own.

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.

POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Thursday 11/7, I first went over two cases that discussed the distinction between custodial versus non-custodial interrogation, Berkemer (U.S. Supreme Court) and Lowe (Maine Supreme Court). We also went over the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Salinas v. Texas, in which the Court discussed what is needed in order to assert the right to remain silent (hint: it is not silence). We then moved to the three opinions in Seibert, which finishes our Fifth Amendment segment. We move on to Chapter 12, and the assignment for Tuesday 11/12 is to read and prepare to discuss through p. 548 of the text.