February 26, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 2/26, I distributed one handout, my version of the Carter issues that were not assigned for the case brief. We did go over those non-assigned issues by putting them in the case brief format. Along the way, I talked about various levels of persuasion (beyond a reasonable doubt; clear and convincing; preponderance of the evidence; probable cause to believe; reasonable suspicion; a hunch). We went over the difference between an objective standard versus a subjective standard. We also went over the concept of the discretion of a trial judge, and how the appellate court just polices the outer boundaries of that discretion. We also reviewed the concept of dictum.
The assignment for Thursday 2/28 is to finish your Carter case brief, due at the beginning of Thursday's class.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Tuesday 2/26, we began by reviewing the holding of Panetti. We also looked at some of the intricacies of habeus corpus, including deference (or not) by the federal proceeding to state court findings. We also discussed mandatory authority (versus persuasive authority) in terms of the federal District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals decisions in Panetti. We then turned to Madison. We looked at the dispute over the formulation of the Question Presented in the case. We talked about whether the lack of memory of the crime itself was enough to negate competency. We discussed the two problems of lying about memory and blackouts and fugue states. We also went over the roles of the desire to be civilized in our executions, and the relationship between that and the lack of memory of the crime.
The assignment for Thursday 2/28 is to review the Madison briefs and especially the Madison oral argument.