April 1, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 4/1, we began by finishing the case brief for Glassford. I then talked about four cases that touched on the issues raised in Glassford. Two Maine cases dealt with use of exculpatory clauses in Maine: Doyle v. Bowdoin College, and Hardy v. Wiscasset Raceway. Two U.S. Supreme Court cases dealt with mandatory arbitration clauses that forbade the use of class actions in those arbitration proceedings: AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, and American Express v. Italian Colors. We then began our discussion of the Caperton case, going over the set-up of the case, and the election of Justice Benjamin. The assignment for Monday 4/4 is to review Caperton, including doing a case brief of the case (for yourself, not handed in or graded).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Friday 4/1, we first finished our discussion of the Escobedo case. We went over when the right to counsel attaches (in the view of both the majority and the dissent). We also talked about the various conditions that have to exist before Escobedo applies: the police are interrogating the suspect, the suspect must have had to ask for counsel and been denied, and the police have not informed the suspect of the right to remain silent. We then turned to Miranda. We saw how the Court changed the point in time at which the rights attach, what exactly were those rights, and which party has the obligation to initiate the conversation about those rights. On Monday we will finish up our discussion of Miranda. The assignment for Monday 4/4 is to read and prepare to discuss the remainder of Chapter 11 of the text, through p. 5639 (including Seibert).