Required Books:
1 Judicial Process and Behavior Cases, a compilation available at Co-op and now online. This contains cases and readings assigned during the semester. This compilation includes many case that were decided by Courts other than the U.S. Supreme Court, e.g. NY Court of Appeals or a British Court. It also ncludes much of D’Amato’s book Introduction to Law ad Legal Thinking and many pages from a textbook I have used in the past, Court Judges and Politics, which has been out of print for 15 years.
Supplementary Books
:. Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process/ This is frpm a set of lectures he delivered around 100 years ago.
2. Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, an autobiography
3. Charles Murray, By The People, Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission. supplemental
4. Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945. This book goes with the movie :Judgment at Nuremberg. You will also get to read the real case on which the movie is based.
Movies:
There will be 4 movies assigned for this course:
- The Ox-bow Incident. This is a 1940’s western about the hanging of an innocent man. It was also created to cover much broader issues of the time. The book was also made into a comic book in a series called Classic Comic books. I am going to put up a link a recent article about a woman arrested after getting off a cruise and spending Christmas in jail though it was clear she was tghe wrong woman. Her lawyers are working on what will likely be a very high dollar result.
- Judgement at Nuremberg This is a 1950’s movie about the trial of German Judges and members of the Reich Justice Ministry(their Department of Justice) for a number of crimes including crimes against humanity. This movie is based on the case entitle U.S. v. Aloestetter which we will read. Most people associate Nuremberg with the trial of major Nazi leaders like Goebels and others. Few know about the trials of lower level officials. This movie is about those trials in the American Sector of Berlin. Others groups like doctors and civil offices were tried in the British and Russian sectors. This movie runs 3 hours and 6 minutes so don’t wait till the end to view it. Given what is happening in the world today, it is more and more relevant. i have assigned this movie for at least the past 26 years or so/
- The Trial. Most of you probably read this short book in high school. This movie is an interesting take on the book. It is about due process and administrative bureaucracies, topics that are related to this course and to Murray’s book. If you have read book and recall much of it no need to watch movie.
- 12 Angry Men a 1957 legal drama, From wikipedia: “The film tells the story of a jury of 12 men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of a teenager charged with murder on the basis of reasonable doubt; disagreement and conflict among them force the jurors to question their morals and values.”
In Addition:
The Assignments Page contains Supreme Court cases that can be read on the web as well as tables, graphs and figures you will be assigned to read and study
Briefing Cases:
For each case assigned in class you should prepare a brief, a summary of the case according to a form I have created. It is similar to but not exactly like what might be required in other classes where cases are to be read and briefed For a full discussion of how to brief a case for this class(click here)
Brief Example: Craig v. Boren (click here)
Note: This brief is based on the entire case as it appears in the official reports. It is more extensive than what would be expected for most cases. All of the issues are noted in the issues and holding section. Normally, we are reading cases for one or two issues. Also there is more detail in the legal reasoning section than would usually be needed, especially especially for the concurrences and dissents.
Papers 2-4 pages.
1. Brief of a recent Supreme Court case most likely on constitutional criminal procedures.
This paper will be due early in the semester and will be assigned at class 5 or 6.
2. A 3-4 page voting analysis of your case which will be due late in the semester.
Daily Course Assignments
Note:Stay up with the assignments even if the class discussion falls behind. The exams will cover everything up to the date of the exam whether we have covered it in class or not.