September 15, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 9/15, I distributed 3 handouts: the case brief template, a sample brief of Miller v. Alabama, and a selection from the Maine sentencing statutes. We went over the language of the 8th Amendment, and various possible meanings of the words cruel and unusual. We also talked about the Bill of Rights as a protection against majority rule. We looked at four previous U.S. Supreme Courts cases regarding juvenile sentencing: Thompson v. Oklahoma, Stanford v. Kentucky, Roper v. Simmons, and Graham v. Florida. I went over the nine Justices of the Court, and their ideological affiliation. I went through the Brief Template and my sample Miller brief. The assignment for Thursday 9/17 is to review all three handouts from today, and to review the concurring and dissenting opinions in Miller. On Thursday we will go over those additional Miller opinions, look at the Maine sentencing statute, and I'll also go over the fate of Miller and Jackson and the question of retroactive v. prospective application of the Miller ruling.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Tuesday 9/15, we began by looking at the process by which the Supreme Court interpreted the 14th Amendment, and how it came to extent the protections of the 14th Amendment to the provisions of the Bill of Rights (which, as originally interpreted, only constrained the federal government, not the state governments). We talked about Reynolds {p.97} and Pierce {p.98} and then we went through the Cantwell case, using the outline format of questions and answers that I had used in the Kim Davis case. We covered Gobitas (p.101), Prince (p. 102) and Braunfeld (p. 103). We then began Sherbert, getting as far as the question of whether there was a burden on Sherbert's religious exercise. We will pick up on Thursday with the consideration of the state's interest. The additional assignment for Thursday 9/17 is to read in the text and prepare to discuss (in the question and answer format) through p. 122 of the text.