November 13, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 11/13, I distributed 2 handouts: Assignment #2 (reproduced below) and the Maine Supreme Court opinion in State v. Brown. I talked a little about the doctrine of Equitable Estoppel that's part of the Brown case. We then finished our discussion of Caperton v. Massey Coal. The assignment for Tuesday 11/18 is to begin work on the Brown case brief, and also to review NFIB v. Sebelius (previously assigned).

Assignment due Thursday November 20th, 2014

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the case of State v. Brown, 2014 ME 83, 95 A.3d 82. (If you were not in class today, you can email me for my edited version of the case).

Brief all of the issues that you determine that the Court ruled on. Remember that the purpose of the brief is to be useful. Check your holdings to make sure that they give the most useful rules possible. Mere conclusory facts just tell us who won and who lost, but not what circumstances determine the winner and loser.

Follow the format from the Sample Briefs that I’ve distributed. Note especially that, after the “Issue” is composed, the “Facts” and “Holding” are copied and pasted. Everything that you put into the Fact section should appear exactly in your Issue and Holding sections as well. Your Issue and Holding sections should be identical to each other, except that the issue is a question, and the Holding is the answer to that question. Your briefs will be evaluated on the format, as well as the specific content.

Please make two copies of your brief, 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 brief. 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 Thursday 11/20, you should still e-mail me your brief by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any grade deducted from your grade for the brief. 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.

Remember to work by yourselves; do not collaborate. Do not show your work to anyone else; do not look at anyone else’s work.

IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your brief 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. If you don’t get a confirmation by the end of the day, email me.



POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Thursday 11/13, I collected the Davis outlines. We went over them, and I plan to grade them this weekend and return them next Tuesday. I then discussed the Nov. 10th decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Carroll v. Carman, a civil suit against a policeman who engaged in an (arguably) unconstitutional search in a "knock and talk" case. The assignment for Tuesday 11/18 is to read in the text pp. 517-529 (Escobedo and Miranda).