February 12, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 2/14, we first discussed the possibility of bad driving conditions and/or school cancellation on Friday, which is the due date for the Johndro case brief. Here's the plan: if class is cancelled or you are unable to make it to class, you should email your case brief to me by class time (9:00). If you do so, I will confirm the receipt of the paper. We then went over the Smith case. We talked about the incompleteness of the textbook citation depriving us of the information we need to figure out which court is writing this decision. The editing of the case also deprived us of the context we need to understand the elements of a protected liberty interest; I went over the 1976 Supreme Court case of Paul v. Davis to provide that context. We went over the concepts of following, distinguishing, or overruling precedent regarding Paul v. Davis and Wisconsin v. Constantineau in the text. We then turned to the two issues that the Court dealt with regarding due process: whether Smith had a protected liberty interest, and whether he received the process that was due. We talked particularly about the exact elements of due process that the Idaho Court found to be missing from what was provided to Smith. The assignment for Friday 2/14 is to finish the Johndro case brief, due at the beginning of class on Friday.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Wednesday 2/14, I first went over the current flow chart of free speech analysis, and applied it to the abortion protest case that Jim Tierney had talked to the class about. We then went through the O'Brien draft-card burning case. We looked at the issues that the Court dealt with, as well as the preliminary issue that it assumed without deciding. We also went through the standard applied (the hurdle) to what the government must show, as well as how that standard was applied (very loosely). The assignment for Friday 2/14 is to read through p. 240 (flag-burning and fighting words). Remember also to check this blog for updates on Friday's weather conditions as they affect class.

POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Wednesday 2/14, we spent the class period going over the nine candidates for the next Supreme Court case for us to study. The class voted, and the winner is...Lozano v Alvarez (the child abduction case) It had 17 points, compared to 13 each for the anonymous drunk driver tip and for the constitutional bar to affirmative action. So the assignment for Friday 2/14 is to read the Petitioner's brief in Lozano v. Alvarez. You can access the brief by going to supremecourt.gov, select "merits briefs", / on-line merit briefs" and at the ABA site scroll down to Lozano, No. 12-820. Remember also to check this blog for updates on Friday's weather conditions as they affect class.