February 20, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 2/20, I distributed one handout, the Maine criminal statute regarding the use of force in the defense of premises and property. We first finished going over the Speelman hypotheticals. I talked about the U.S. Supreme Court case of Jones v. Flowers, which dealt with the due process requirements involved in following up undelivered certified mail. We then began our case brief of Katko v. Briney, getting to the first issue in the case, which is where we'll pick up on Wednesday.
The assignment for Wednesday, 2/22, is do a case brief of Katko (not handed in) and to study today's Maine statutory handout, asking yourself whether the Brineys' actions in Maine would constitute a criminal offense.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 2/20, we started going through the outline of McCullen v. Coakley. I first discussed some of the pre-McCullen case from the chart on p. 241 of the text, and I clarified what the enforcement problems were with the pre-McCullen Massachusetts law. We started going through the Roberts' opinion in McCullen, getting to the question of whether the Massachusetts law was narrowly tailored, which is where we'll continue on Wednesday.
The assignment for Wednesday, 2/22, is to continue working on your McCullen outline (not handed in) and to read and prepare to discuss pp. 216-219 of the text (Brandenburg).