March 30, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 3/30, we started with the Holland case, looking at the Florida Supreme Court's power to declare common law crimes, and its decision not to create the crime of misprision of a felony. We then looked at the Maine statute regarding common law crimes, and the circumstances under which the state requires reporting. We looked at the mandated reported of child abuse and neglect, and the lack of any consequences for failure to do so. I also went over the federal misprision of felony statute, 18 USC §4. We then turned to the Glassford case. We looked at the various provisions of the contract, and which ones the Court found unconscionable. On Friday we will finish the case brief for Glassford, and then I'll talk about cases discussing both arbitration clauses and exculpatory clauses. The assignment for Friday April 1 is to finish Chapter II of the text (Caperton).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Wednesday 3/30, I began by going over the current Supreme Court case of Utah v. Strieff. We went over the concepts of flagrant police misconduct, the purpose of the police (mis)conduct, and the role of deterrence. We discussed the Utah Supreme Court way of looking at the case (inevitable discovery instead of attenuation) and how there was no party defending that view at the U.S. Supreme Court oral argument. We talked about the positions staked out by the Court's exclusionists, versus the admissibles. And we talked about how Ferguson, Missouri loomed over the question of outstanding arrest warrants. We then left the 4th Amendment behind, and moved the 5th and the 6th. We examined the text of those amendments, read literally. Then we went over the facts of Escobedo. We will pick up on Friday with the decision by the Supreme Court in Escobedo, both majority and dissent. The assignment for Friday April 1 is to read in the text through p. 530 (Miranda).