October 1. 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 10/1, I distributed 3 handouts: assignment #1 (reproduced below) due 10/8; the Kimball opinion that you'll be briefing; and the Maine criminal statute regarding defense of premises.

We began class with a discussion of Kimball, which involves both the Maine Rules of Evidence about hearsay, and the 6th Amendment's confrontation clause. We then went over the Speelman hypotheticals that I had distributed on Tuesday. Finally, we started working our way through the Katko case brief. We got through the appellant's contentions, so we'll start with the issues when we pick up on Tuesday. The assignment for Tuesday 10/6 is to review Katko and your case brief of the case; read the Maine statutory handout regarding defense of premises, and think about Briney's liability under Maine law; and begin work on your Kimball case brief.

Assignment due Thursday October 8th, 2015

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the case of State v. Kimball, 2015 ME 67, 117 A.3d 585.
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 10/8, 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 weren't in class, you can access the Kimball case by going to the Maine Supreme Court opinion website-
http://courts.maine.gov/opinions_orders/supreme/publishedopinions.shtml
and then scroll down to and select May 2015 Opinions, State v. Kimball, 2015 ME 67.



POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Thursday 10/1, I collected the Hobby Lobby outlines, and we went over those outlines, including both the issues decided by Alito, and those not decided. We also discussed Ginsburg's dissent. At the end of class, I also finished up the Boerne outline regarding Congressional power to impose RFRA on the states. I plan to grade the Hobby Lobby outlines this weekend, and to return them on Tuesday. The assignment for Tuesday 10/6 is to read and prepare to discuss pp. 197-205 of the text.