March 22, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 3/22, we finished our discussion of Gregg v. Georgia by discussing the two dissenting opinions in the case. We then began our discussion of Caperton v. Massey Coal by going through the underlying facts, and the due process recusal issue. We got as far as looking at whether the Court majority accepted Benjamin's understanding of what due process requires, which is where we'll pick up on Friday.
The assignment for Friday 3/24 is to review Caperton, and to at least read and begin work on your Williams case briefs. I plan to begin on Friday with a discussion about Williams, so as to make it easier for you to understand and brief the case.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Wednesday 3/22, I first clarified a format question about the Reed outline that's due Friday: even if you have sub-elements under an element, you can, if you wish, use Q & A format for the element (rather than just "title" of the element, as I had stated in the assignment). We then finished going over Reno v. ACLU, and looked at Congressional attempts to fix the problem in the COPA (p. 369) and then the PROTECT act (p. 373). We talked about how PROTECT goes after virtual depictions, and why Congress may have targeted material in which no actual children were involved. We will continue with the Williams case when we finish our discussion of Reed.
The assignment for Friday 3/24 is to finish your Reed outlines (due at the beginning of Friday's class) and to review Williams (previously assigned).