March 21, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 3/21, I distributed one handout, Maine's statutes regarding common law crimes, hindering apprehension, and mandated reporting of child abuse or neglect. I first discussed a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions about groups that are not subject to capital punishment. We looked at Coker v. Georgia, Enmund v. Florida, Ford v. Wainwright, Thompson v. Oklahoma, Atkins v. Virginia, Roper v. Simmons, and Kennedy v. Louisiana. We also discussed the current Supreme Court case of Hall v. Florida. We then went over the Mobbley case, going over both the majority and the dissenting opinions. We will pick up with the Holland case (previously assigned) on Monday. The assignment for Monday 3/24 is to read the handout, and to read in the text through p. 70 (Lawrence v. Texas).


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 3/21, I distributed two handouts, the assignment (copied below) and the case of Virginia v. Black. We first finished going over White's opinion in R.A.V.in the text, and then started discussing the handout from last time that included more of both Scalia's and White's opinions. We got as far as the question in White's opinion as to who is entitled to raise an overbreadth claim. We will go over the rest of the White opinion from the handout, and Scalia's handout opinion, on Monday. The assignment for Monday 3/24 is to begin work on your Va. v. Black outline, due Friday 3/28.

The assignment is to do an outline of Virginia v. Black (also distributed to the class today).

Follow the format from the Sample Outlines that I’ve distributed. Your outlines will be evaluated on the format, as well as the specific content. Note that the basic format is Title (for the Roman numerals); and then Question and Answer for the other elements. Add elements to the outline as necessary in order to cover the points raised by the Justices. Outline both the O’Connor opinion and the Souter opinion.

The assignment will be graded on both the structure and the content of your outline. The outline will also be graded on how well you write English, and how clearly you organize your thoughts. I like short clear sentences better than long complicated ones. I like correct grammar.

Please make two copies of your outline, one to hand in at the beginning of class, and the other for you to have during class for our discussion.

You may e-mail me if you have specific questions about the assignment. The more time that I have to answer your questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Friday 3/28, you should still e-mail me your assignment by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any grade deducted from your grade for the outline. If you do not, you should still contact me as soon as possible to see what options are available to you. (Generally, I do not want to accept assignments after we have discussed them in class). See the Syllabus for the class rules regarding late papers.

The work should be entirely your own, with no collaboration or plagiarism. Don’t look at other student’s outlines, and don’t show your outline to anyone. See the syllabus regarding plagiarism and collaboration.


IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your assignment to me, I will reply to confirm that I have received your assignment. If I do not reply, then I have not received the assignment.




POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Friday 3/21, I collected the Lozano papers, and we discussed them. I hope to be able to return the papers on Monday. We spent the class period going over the arguments of the parties, and how the class decided to resolve them. The assignment for Monday 3/24 is to read the brief of Petitioner Sebelius in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby (13-354)(available from the supremecourt.gov website).