February 10, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 2/10, we went over the Johndro case and how to brief it. We discussed the issues related to probable cause, and then the issues related to the exclusionary rule. I emphasized that the brief should produce a product that is useful for future cases: not just a conclusion of whether there was or was not probable cause in this case, but guidelines of those things that are or are not needed in order to establish probable cause in future cases. The assignment for Wednesday 2/12 is to continue working on the Johndro brief, due Friday, and to review the Smith case, previously assigned.



POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 2/10, we finished our discussion of Brandenburg. We looked at the treatment given by Brandenburg to precedent (Whitney and Dennis) and then went over the rule that was made in Brandenburg regarding advocacy, incitement, imminence, and likelihood. We went on to the free speech guarantees in other countries, and talked about both the role of enforcement of the lofty principles, and the status of hate speech.We will pick up with the flow chart of 1st Amendment analysis on Wednesday. The assignment for Wednesday 2/12 is to read through p. 233 of the text.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Monday 2/10, I distributed one handout, a brief description of nine upcoming Supreme Court cases. I collected the papers, and we discussed aspects of both the two issues (viewpoint neutrality and necessity) and your predictions for the vote in the case. I will probably not hand the papers back until Friday. The assignment for Wednesday 2/12 is to read over the description of the upcoming cases, and to think about which case you'd like to tackle next.