January 31, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 1/31, I distributed one handout, my version of the Doe case brief. We went over all of the case brief segments, including the inclusion of the loser's facts in an "even though" parenthetical. Along the way, we also went over the organization of the federal court system, and the 2 bases of federal trial court jurisdiction.
The assignment for Tuesday 2/5 is to review today's handout, review pp. 1-15 of the text (previously assigned) and then to read through p. 21 of the text (Miller v. Alabama). Using today's handout and the case brief template, write out a case brief of the Miller opinion (not handed in or graded).


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Thursday 1/31, I first let the class know of upcoming assignment plans. I plan to distribute Assignment #1 on Tuesday 2/5, to be due Thursday 2/14. That's the plan, at least.
We then went back into the Gamble oral argument. We started with Alito's challenge on p. 10--"are you really ready to let the terrorist off the hook"? We looked at the response given, and then went to Black's dissent in Abbate, in which he had said, "well, that's what the double jeopardy clause is all about". I showed a clip from the PBS series on the Supreme Court in which Black said that the Bill of Rights does indeed make it harder to convict defendants (and that's the price we pay for protecting individual rights and dignity). I went over the history of incorporation of the Bill of Rights as protections as well as against the states, and discussed Benton v. Maryland.
The assignment for Tuesday 2/5 is to continue reviewing the Gamble oral argument.