January 22, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 1/22, I distributed 3 handouts: the syllabus; the Maine Supreme Court opinion in Doe v. DHHS; and some questions to guide your reading of the Doe case. We went through the syllabus and the requirements for the class. I went over the organization of the Maine court system, with its 2 trial courts and one supreme court. We talked about how one gets to be Maine judge or justice, and the term for which one serves. We contrasted the Maine system with the lifetime tenure of the federal judges and justices. We began our discussion of the Doe case by going over the citation for the case, including the order of the parties in the caption. We went over the panel of justices of the court, and the first sentence of the opinion. We will pick up from that point on Thursday.
The assignment for Thursday 1/24 is to read the Doe opinion, and the questions about Doe that I had distributed. Also, be prepared with any questions stemming from your reading of Doe that the case raises for you, in terms of what was going on.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Tuesday 1/22, I distributed 4 handouts: the syllabus; a list of the Supreme Court Justices and selected websites about the Court; and excerpts from both the Petitioner's and Respondent's briefs in Gamble v. U.S. We went through the syllabus and the requirements for the class. I discussed the path to the Supreme Court, through both the federal and the state courts systems, and the two major types of cases taken by the Court (interpretations of the federal constitution, and of the federal statutes). We looked over the biographies of the Justices. We began our discussion of the Gamble case by looking at the language of the 5th Amendment, and wondering what the words of the Double Jeopardy Clause mean in the context of the facts of the Gamble case
The assignment for Thursday 1/24 is to review the List of Justices handout, and then read in detail both the Petitioner's and the Respondent's briefs.