September 14, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 9/14, I distributed two handouts: a list of the Supreme Court Justices (as well as useful websites) and the Maine statutes regarding sentencing. We went over those handouts, including the proper citation form for Maine statutes. We went over the remaining opinions in Miller, including Breyer's, Roberts', and Thomas' opinions. We went over the difference between concurring in the judgment versus concurring in the opinion. I then talked about the case of Montgomery v. Louisiana and the retroactive application of the rule in Miller. We discussed Montgomery's differentiation between new constitutional procedural rules versus new constitutional substantive rules, and why Miller fell on the substantive side.
The assignment for Tuesday 9/19 is to read through p. 34 of the text, including Washington v. Glucksberg. Write out a case brief of the majority opinion in Glucksberg, (not handed in or graded).


POS 383 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Thursday 9/14, I distributed one handout, the Supreme Court opinion in Reno v. Condon. We finished our discussion of Printz by going over the second part of Thomas' concurrence, and the two dissenting opinions. We then went through the Third Circuit opinion in this case, getting to ¶17, which is where we'll pick up next Tuesday. Along the way, we discussed the concepts of the holding of a case versus dictum, and mandatory authority through the federal court system.
The assignment for Tuesday 9/19 is to read today's handout, as well as the two previously distributed SCOTUS briefs.