March 20, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 3/20, I distributed 2 handouts: Assignment #1 (reproduced below) and the case you'll be briefing, Williams v. Pennsylvania. We went over the assignment. We then began our discussion of Gregg v. Georgia, formulating the issues posed by Stewart's opinion. We will finish our discussion of Gregg on wednesday by going over the dissenting opinions in the case.
The assignment for Wednesday 3/22 is to begin work on the Williams case brief, and to read in the text pp. 78-82 (Caperton v. Massey Coal).


Assignment due Friday, March 31, 2017

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the case of Williams v. Pennsylvania, __U.S. __ (2016)

Only brief Kennedy’s majority opinion. For the Roberts and Thomas dissenting opinions, just write a brief paragraph for each, explaining the basic views of that dissent.

Brief all of the issues that you determine that the Court ruled on. Remember that the purpose of the brief is to be useful. Check your holdings to make sure that they give the most useful rules possible. Mere conclusory facts just tell us who won and who lost, but not what circumstances determine the winner and loser.

Follow the format from the Sample Briefs that I’ve distributed, with this addition: after giving the winner’s facts, give the loser’s facts with a phrase that starts “even though...”.

For example (from the textbook case of Caperton v. Massey Coal): “Under the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause, does a campaign contribution have a significant and disproportionate influence on a judicial election when the $3 million spent was out of proportion to any other spending in the race, the appellate case was pending at the time of the contribution, and it was foreseeable that the case would be heard by the court to which the candidate was seeking election, even though there was no evidence that the contribution actually caused the victory of the candidate?”.

Note especially that, after the “Issue” is composed, the “Facts” and “Holding” are copied and pasted. Everything that you put into the Fact section should appear exactly in your Issue and Holding sections as well. Your Issue and Holding sections should be identical to each other, except that the issue is a question, and the Holding is the answer to that question. Your briefs will be evaluated on the format, as well as the specific content.

Please make two copies of your brief, one to hand in at the beginning of class, and the other for you to have during class for our discussion.

You may e-mail me if you have specific questions about the brief. The more time that I have to answer your questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Friday 3/31, you should still e-mail me your brief by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any grade deducted from your grade for the brief. If you do not, you should still contact me as soon as possible to see what options are available to you. (Generally, I do not want to accept assignments after we have discussed them in class). See the Syllabus for the class rules regarding late papers.

Remember to work by yourselves; do not collaborate. Do not show your work to anyone else; do not look at anyone else’s work.

IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your brief to me, I will reply to confirm that I have received your assignment. If I do not reply, then I have not received the assignment.



POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 3/20, we talked a little about the Reed outline (due this Friday) and I shared with the class my draft length for the outline as a little over 2 pages (as a guide to how long the outline might be). I reviewed the current case of Packingham v. North Carolina (the sex offender registrant who accessed Facebook) and the we used the assigned textbook cases as a vehicle for looking at some of the issues in Packingham. We went through Stevens' opinion in Reno v. ACLU. We will go over the legislative response to the case, and the case of U.S. v. Williams on Wednesday.
The assignment for Wednesday 3/22 is to continue working on your Reed v. Gilbert outlines, due Friday, and to review the rest of Chapter 8, including U.S. v. Williams, previously assigned.