January 27, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 1/17, I distributed one handout, my version of the VSDA case brief. We finished going through that brief, covering both the format that I'm looking for, and the substance of what the court held. The assignment for Wednesday 1/19 is to read through p. 32 of the text, and to brief the Glucksberg case for yourself (not graded or handed in).



POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 1/17, I distributed one handout, the Sedition Act of 1918. We compared the 1798 and the 1918 Sedition Acts. We saw how in Schenck Justice Holmes first dealt with the question of prior restrsint. We then examined two questions posed by Holmes about the scope of the Free Speech protection: a)what type of circumstances justify a government restriction on free speech and b)if some government restriction is allowed, how broadly may the restriction sweep in terms of actually having to solve the perceived problem? On Wednesday 1/29, Jim Tierney (former Attorney General of Maine) will address the class. He is a great speaker, and this class meeting should be a highlight of the semester. The assignment then for Friday 1/31 is to read in the text through p.205 (Abrams). I asked the class specifically to think about whether and how Holmes' opinion in Schenck is consistent with his dissent in Abrams.

POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Monday 1/17, we first went over the 1st Amendment flow chart: content-based restrictions, strict scrutiny, narrow tailoring, alternatives. We then used that flow chart to see how both Stevens and Scalia analyzed the Colorado statute. We went through the operation of the statute, both what's allowed and what's forbidden. The assignment for Wednesday 1/19 is read the Petitioner's Brief in McCullen, previously assigned. Read the brief with the opinions in Hill in mind.