February 1, 2018

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 2/1, we began by going over the different forms of authority cited by the Maine Supreme Court in the Snow opinion. We looked at mandatory authority, such as Maine and federal statutes, prior Maine Supreme Court opinions, and U.S. Supreme Court opinions. We also looked at persuasive authority, such as decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and decisions from other state's courts . All of these are examples of primary authority, that is, law. We also saw an example of secondary authority, in the citation to a treatise (Corbin on Contracts) which is itself not law at all. We looked at what we can learn from citation form, in both the federal court system (U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court), and decisions from other states.
We then turned back to the lessons that we can learn from the Snow case, and discussed how to satisfy the Snow opinion, but still have the client sign away rights as much as possible. We discussed clarity of the agreement in terms of coverage of malpractice claims and giving up the right to a jury, which pieces of paper to use and where the Arbitration clause should go and how it should be brought to the client's attention, and whether it is necessary to do an oral explanation to the client.
We then briefly discussed some of the textbook introductory material that was assigned for today, including law and equity, and the concept of natural law.
The assignment for Tuesday 2/6 is to read in the text pp. 16-21 (the Miller case, including all the opinions). Think of how you would brief the case, although you don't need to write out a case brief.


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Thursday 2/1, we began by finishing our discussion of the Gabriel opinion. We went over the justifications offered for the Old Town checkpoint, and discussed which of those were related to the border. We talked about the lack of much result, in terms of illegal entry, that happened at Old Town, and how that didn't matter to Judge Woodcock's opinion of how "reasonableness" is assessed. We speculated about whether the Gabriel opinion opens the door to checkpoints anywhere in Maine, anytime, or whether it is limited to time of events like political party conventions. Along the way, we discussed the authority upon which Judge Woodcock relied, looking at not only mandatory U.S. Supreme court precedent, but also mandatory 1st Circuit cases, and contrasted that with persuasive authority from other Circuits.
We then turned to the Katz case. I first went over the 1961 case of Silverman v. U.S., in which the U.S. Supreme Court found a 4th Amendment violation by use of a "spike mike". We started our discussion of Katz by going over Black's dissent, and his view of "persons, houses, papers, and effects". We then turned to Stewart's opinion regarding the test for what constitutes a "search", and the new answer that the Court came up with. We will pick up next Tuesday with Stewart's discussion of what the word "reasonable" means.
The assignment for Tuesday 2/6 is to review Katz, and to read in the text through p. 478 (all three opinions in Jones).