October 3, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 10/3, I distributed four handouts: Assignment #1 (reproduced below); the case you'll be briefing; my version of the Katko case brief; and the Maine statute regarding use of force in defense of premises. We talked about the requirements of the assignment. I went over the Supreme Court case of Jones v. Flowers, and then we discussed Katko v. Briney. I also went over the four mental states involved in both civil and criminal law: intent; knowledge; recklessness; and negligence.
The assignment for Thursday 10/5 is to read all of today's handouts, to begin work on the Dyer case brief, and to read in the text through the end of Chapter 1 (Suggs v. Norris).

Assignment due at 2:00 Thursday, October 12, 2017

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the case of State v. Dyer, 2001 ME 62, 769 A.2d 873, also distributed to the class today. If you weren't in class, you can access the case at
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2563685327105664517&q=2001+ME+62&hl=en&as_sdt=4,193

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, including this: after giving the winner’s facts, give the loser’s facts with a parenthetical phrase that starts “even though...”.

For example: “Under the 4th Amendment, was the pursuit of a suspect from a public road onto the curtilage of his home a “hot” or fresh pursuit when the officer followed the suspect on the road, and from the road into the curtilage of the house, immediately and fairly continuously (even though the officer did not leave his car to follow the suspect for at least seven seconds)?”.

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 already have appeared exactly in your Issue and get copied into your 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 on Thursday 10/12.

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 Thursday 10/12, 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. Do not discuss your case brief with anyone but me. Do no outside research. You already have all the materials that you need.

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 the paper is not submitted.



POS 383 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 10/3, we first went over some questions about Assignment #1, due at the beginning of class on Thursday 10/5. We then went over the Holland preemption case, and Crosby as far as the second of the obstacles to accomplishment of the federal goals. We put Crosby in an outline format.
The assignment for Thursday 10/5 is to complete work on your Christie papers, due at the beginning of class on Thursday. Also read the Arizona case in the text, through p. 414.