April 4, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 4/4, we first finished our discussion of the Caperton case. We discussed the relationship between the W. Virginia Code of Judicial Conduct and the federal due process clause; the previous cases on recusal; the overall due process standard for recusal; the particular standard for this circumstance; the application of the newly announced standard to the facts of this case; and why there's nothing to worry about in terms of opening the floodgates of recusal motions. Along the way, we also looked at campaign finance rules that allow buying of those running for office. Then I went over a current U.S. Supreme Court case, Williams v. Pennsylvania, that raises the due process recusal question in the context of a District Attorney who made prosecutorial decisions in a case in which he later sat as a state Supreme Court Justice. The assignment for Wednesday 4/6 is to read in the text through p. 98 (NFIB v. Sebelius).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Monday 4/4, I distributed three handouts, all Maine Supreme Court cases: Ormsby, Bragg, and Prescott. We first finished our discussion of Miranda, looking at how one crucial holding in terms of the text of the 5th Amendment was that custodial interrogation is inherently coercive, so there is no need for an individual assessment of whether the interrogation was coercive. We looked at the case that followed Miranda, especially Berkemer and Elstad. We discussed Seibert, and looked at how the plurality and Kennedy took somewhat different routes in distinguishing Elstad. We then began, but did not finish looking at the youtube video of the second part of the confession in the Ormsby case. On Wednesday, I'll go over Kennedy's alternative curative step to cure a Seibert violation, and then finish viewing the Ormsby confession. (If you want to view it yourself, just go to youtube and search for "Ormsby Confession".) The assignment for Wednesday 4/6 is to read the State v. Ormsby opinion (the other two handouts will be assigned later this week).