April 25, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 4/25, I distributed two handouts: an excerpt from Maine's adoption statute, and an excerpt from Maine's subject matter jurisdiction statutes. We reviewed the Full Faith and Credit holding in Obergefell v. Hodges, and the I talked about a recent Supreme Court Full Faith and Credit case, V.L. v. E.L. That case turned on the definition of subject matter jurisdiction regarding the interpretation of the Georgia adoption statute. I then talked about another Supreme Court case, Bowles v. Russell, in which the Court gave a very broad, expansive definition of subject matter jurisdiction in the context of missed deadlines. That case turned out very badly for the prisoner who missed the deadline to appeal by a few days. I contrasted that case with the Maine Supreme Court case of Landmark Realty v. Leasure, in which our Court gave a very restrictive definition of subject matter jurisdiction, which turned out well for the creditor who missed the deadline for obtaining a writ of execution (by 13 years), and very badly for the debtor who missed the date for the objection to issuance of that writ by a few months. On Wednesday we will go over the previously-assigned case of Cheap Escape v. Haddox, as well as today's handouts. The additional assignment for Wednesday 4/27 is to read in the text through p. 135 (Swoboda v. Parody).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Monday 4/25, I distributed one handout, the rules for lawyers regarding generating publicity for your cases. We finished our discussion of Batson, going over the majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions. I then talked about a current Supreme Court case, Foster v. Chatman, in which the defendant was able to get the prosecutor's jury selection notes, which seemed on their face to indicate that the proffered neutral explanations were actually just a pretext. On Wednesday I will begin with one other jury selection case, Rodriguez v. Colorado. The assignment for Wednesday 4/27 is to continue working on your Assignment #2 (due at the beginning of class on Friday), to read today's handout, and to review Sheppard v. Maxwell (previously assigned).