February 10, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 2/10, I distributed 2 handouts: my version of the Glucksberg case brief, and an excerpt from the same sex marriage case of Obergefell v. Hodges. We finished going over the Glucksberg case brief, including also Souter's concurrence. We saw the flow chart of substantive due process played out, as the Court decided that strict scrutiny (the high hurdles) was not required, and rational basis review (the low hurdles) was met. Along the way we discussed the treatment of precedent by either following it or distinguishing it.
The assignment for Monday 2/13 is to read the Obergefell excerpt, and to read in the text through p. 38. Do a case brief of Speelman v. Housing Authority (for yourself, not handed in or graded).


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 2/10, I distributed one handout, a news article about a potentially disruptive speech at USM. We first finished our discussion of the Alvarez opinion, going over both the Breyer concurrence and the Alito dissent. We discussed the tests used by all three opinion-writers, and the application of the various tests. We then looked at the revised Stolen Valor Act (previous handout) and discussed whether the revised act met the objections of Kennedy and of Breyer. We started our discussion of Chaplinsky by examining how the N.H. Supreme Court had narrowed the interpretation of the state statute to include only "fighting words" even though the statutory words alone reached the very broad category of any "annoying" words. We will pick up on Monday with the exact definition of fighting words, and the rest of the Murphy's opinion in Chaplinsky.
The assignment for Monday 2/13 is to review Chaplinsky and Cohen (previously assigned) and to read today's handout. Compare the designation of the costs of security with the textbook chart on p. 241.