March 22, 2018

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 3/22, I distributed one handout, a selection of Maine statutes, including the law about deceiving the police. We first went over the Suggs case, putting it in the form of a case brief. We then skipped up to Mobbley, including both the majority and the dissent. Along the way we talked about directed verdicts, judgments notwithstanding the verdict, looking at the evidence in the light most favorable to a party, and dictum. We also reviewed primary v. secondary authority, mandatory v. persuasive authority, and case citation format.
The assignment for Tuesday 3/27 is to read in the text pp. 52-58, including Gregg v. Georgia.


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Thursday 3/22, we first went through the remainder of the qualified immunity handout from last class. I then discussed two current Supreme Court 4th Amendment cases: Byrd v. U.S. raises the question of the rights of a driver of a rental car who was not authorized as driver of the car by the rental company; Collins v. Virginia raises the question of the rights of a motorcycle driver whose cycle was parked in the driveway of the house. Then we went back to the text and went through the arguments and opinions in Mapp v. Ohio.
The assignment for Tuesday 3/27 is to read in the text pp. 504-514 (including Leon and Hudson).