September 8, 2016

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 9/8, I distributed two handouts: a sheet on the Justices of the Supreme Court, and my version of the Miller case brief. We started today by talking about the difference between common law (where the judges themselves make up the rules) versus interpretation of enacted law (where the judges interpret the words of others, such as the words of the 8th Amendment). That brought us to the Miller case. We went through the case brief of Miller, focusing especially on the key facts of the case (upon what circumstances and factors did Kagan rely to find that this sentence violated the Eighth Amendment). Along the way, I went over 4 previous decisions of the Court regarding punishment of juveniles: Thompson v. Oklahoma; Stanford v. Kentucky; Roper v. Simmons; and Graham v. Florida. We looked at the lineup of Justices in Roper, Graham, and Miller, and, using the handout of Justices, talked about what effect the Presidential election may have on the outcome of cases like Miller. On Tuesday we will go over the other opinions in the Miller case (concurring and dissenting) and I will also talk about the 2016 case of Montgomery v. Louisiana. The assignment for Tuesday 9/13 is to review the rest of Miller, and today's handouts, and to read in the text through p. 34. Write out (for yourself, not handed in) a case brief of Glucksberg.