December 3, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 12/3, the class first did teacher evaluations. I distributed one handout, the Maine statutes regarding Maine District Court and Superior Court civil and criminal jurisdiction. We went over the Finstuen adoption case. I then discussed another Court of Appeals case, Adar v. Smith, that came to a different outcome regarding birth certificates after same sex adoptions. We went over a number of issues regarding full faith and credit and same sex relationships. We discussed the surviving part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). We also looked at the Maine statutes regarding adoptions by "husband and wife" and the new definition of "husband and wife" that came with the introduction of same sex marriage in Maine. We discussed the difference between recognition of marriage and recognition of adoptions. We will pick up with the Cheap Escape case on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 11/5 is to read and prepare to discuss through p. 139 of the text.


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 12/3, the class first did teacher evaluations. I distributed one handout, an article about the history of the Furman capital punishment case. We then finished up the Richmond Newspapers case, discussed sentencing discretion and the Booker case, and then went into the history of the Eighth Amendment cases (Solem, Harmelin, Ewing, and Graham). We began our discussion of Gregg v. Georgia, and will pick up with Stewart's justifications for the death penalty on Thursday. The additional assignment for Thursday 12/5 is to read through p. 596 of the text.