January 24, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 1/24, we began our briefing of the VSDA case. We went through citation form in all the levels of the federal court system. We covered the parties, objective, cause of action, trial court defense, and prior and present proceedings. We discussed summary judgment and de novo review. We talked about the three levels of scrutiny for free speech cases: strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, and rational basis review. We will pick up with the contentions and the rest of the case brief on Monday. The assignment for Monday 1/27 is to continue to work on and refine your VSDA case brief.

POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 1/24, I distributed two handouts: an excerpt from the Maine Constitution, and the Sedition Act of 1789. We first finished our discussion of the NSA metadata collection, seeing how the Klayman Court distinguished Smith, rather than following it. We also talked about how the holding in Kayman may no longer be good law, in that the Court relied in part on the the fact that the NSA queried the data without prior judicial approval, a fact now changed by Obama's plan to require FISC approval prior to querying. We then began our discussion of free speech by looking at the language of the First Amendment, and comparing it to the language of the the free speech guarantee of the Maine Constitution. We also discussed the concept of prior restraint. The assignment for Friday 1/27 is to read in the text from p. 197-202, and to read the two handouts.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Friday 1/27, we first were treated to Justice Kevin Cuddy of the Maine Superior Court describe to us his experience argung a case to the U.S. Supreme Court. We the began our discussion of the Hill v. Colorado, going over the concept of facial versus as-applied challenges. We will continue with Hill on Monday.

The additional assignment for Monday 1/27 is to read the Petitioner’s Brief in the case of McCullen v. Coakley.
Start at the Supreme Court site: www.supremecourt.gov
Select from the menu on the left “Merits Briefs”.
Select “On-Line Merits Briefs” (this redirects you to the American Bar Association (ABA) site).
From the alphabetical list of cases. select “McCullen v. Coakley, 12-1168”.
Under “Merits Briefs” select “Brief for Petitioner”.
While you’re on the page listing all the briefs, browse the list of Amicus Briefs, to get a sense of the politics of the case.