October 2, 2018

POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Tuesday 10/2, we started going through the outline of Kennedy's opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop. We got as far as that "despicable piece of rhetoric", which is what we'll pick up with on Thursday. Along the way, we looked at which parts of Kennedy's opinion were dictum, rather than the holding of the case.
The assignment for Thursday 10/4 is to refine your outline of Kennedy's opinion, and to review your outlines and the point of all of the concurrences.


POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 10/2, I distributed 2 handouts: my version of the Speelman case brief, and some hypotheticals to see what use we might make out of the Speelman opinion. We went through the case brief of Speelman. Along the way we went over forms of preliminary relief, including a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Preliminary Injunction. We went over how the requirements for relief are part of the common law of the state, made by the state Supreme Court. We talked about mandatory authority as precedent from the line of authority of a court (as the Washington Supreme Court creates mandatory authority for the Washington Court of Appeals). We went over how a court can follow precedent (the same side wins) or distinguish precedent (a different side wins because the facts are different). Finally I talked about the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case of Jones v. Flowers, in which the Court held that notice reasonably calculated to reach a recipient has to include some extra effort if the sender knows that the letter did not get through to the intended recipient.
The assignment for Thursday 10/4 is to read and prepare to discuss the Speelman hypotheticals, and read and do a practice case brief (not handed in or graded) of Katko v. Briney in the text (through p. 43).