March 31, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 3/31, I distributed my version of the Williams case brief, and collected the classes' case briefs. I plan to grade them this weekend and return them on Monday. We spent the class going over the briefs, as well as the questions of whether Castille might in fact have treated the decision to seek the death penalty as perfunctory, and whether Castille might have had knowledge of the misconduct that his office participated in (the Brady violation).
The assignment for Monday 4/3 is to review Lawrence v. Texas, previously assigned.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 3/31, we started with the origin of substantive due process and the Lochner case. We talked about the demise of Lochner, and the bad reputation of substantive due process. We then began our discussion of Griswold. We counted votes to see whether there was a majority opinion in the case. We went through Douglas' opinion, and the three concurrence. We will pick up next Monday with the dissents in Griswold.
The assignment for Monday 4/3 is to review Griswold, and then to read in the text through p. 410 (Roe v. Wade).