January 30, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 1/30, I distributed one handout, a list of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and some Supreme Court websites. We began by going over some points in the textbook's introductory section, including natural law and Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail; historical jurisprudence and same-sex marriage; analytical positivism and executive orders; speedy court procedures versus just ones; common law; and equity jurisdiction. We then began our discussion of Miller v. Alabama. We looked at the text of the 8th Amendment, and I also talked about how the 14th Amendment Due Process clause was used to incorporate those Bill of Rights protections (protections against Congress) as protections as well against states. We went through the case briefs that the class wrote out for today, up to the Issue, which is where we'll pick up on Wednesday.
The assignment for Wednesday 2/1 is to review Miller, and your case brief of Miller, and review also the concurring and dissenting opinions.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 1/30, we finished our discussion of the Bates case. We then went over Central Hudson Gas, looking both at the 4 part test created by the Supreme Court (the hurdle) and the analysis of how that newly created test was to be applied in this case. We saw how the state met the first three hurdles of the test, but not the fourth hurdle. We then discussed what kind of advertising would meet the fourth hurdle. Finally, we went over the Rehnquist dissent, which not only repeated his objection from Bates that the 1st Amendment does not protect this advertising at all, but also expressed his view that the test devised was too restrictive on the state, and also that there should be deference to the state in terms of what is "necessary".
The assignment for Wednesday 2/1 is to review Snyder v. Phelps (p. 248) and to read in addition U.S. v. Alvarez (pp. 253-258).