Natural Law, Legal Positivism, and Historical School

Legal philosopher who wrote The Morality of Law in 1964. Possessed a secular view of natural law and influenced Ronald Dworkin. Created the 8 routes of failure for any legal system.

Examples include: Lack of rules or laws, failure to make laws known, contradictions in law, unclear legislation

Professor at Oxford, wrote The Concept of Law.

Law is a union of primary and secondary rules, created by man and put down in writing. Primary rules are rules that society accepts which grant or impose obligations upon its members. Secondary rules are mechanisms for creating new rules, rules must be approved, also known as the rule of recognition. 

German term for "Spirit of the People"

A prisoner is to be released from unlawful detention. A prisoner who petitions the court for a writ of habeas corpus be will be brought before a judge to determine if it is unlawful for him to be detained.

Habeas Corpus guarantees protection against unjust detention but does not protect other rights.

Responsible for developing American law school model.

-Law school from 1 to 3 years

-Instructors are theoreticians not practitioners

-Use the Case method 

Professor at Harvard Law School and founder of the Critical Legal Studies movement.

Critical Race theory says laws are created by whites to maintain power.

Critical class theory says that law is created by dominant elite to maintain dominance. 

Critical feminist theory says laws are made by males to maintain dominance.

Repeat Players vs. One Shotters

Galanter argues that people who have been in court before are more likely to win. 

Grieving, claiming, disputing, hiring, filing

Dispute resolution processes and techniques that act as a means for disagreeing parties to come to an agreement short of litigation.

4 types: Negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration.

Legal concept that protects certain communications between a client and his or her attorney and keeps those communications confidential. 

exceptions include: consent by the client, court order, intention to commit a crime, lawyer is being sued

Police officer's failure to provide Miranda warnings before questioning the respondent about incriminating evidence did not violate the 5th amendment because the delay was justified in the interest of public safety.

Asked him where the gun was.

"Shocking the conscience"

Police forced the drugs out of Rochin when he swallowed evidence. Court ruled that the evidence that shocks the conscience cannot be admitted in court.

Refers to Rochin v. California

Conduct that shocks the conscience is not permissible in court.

The point in a case which determines the judgment. A legal rule derived from those parts of legal reasoning within a judgment on the outcome of a case depends.

The rational for a decision.

Batson was a black man on trial and the prosecution used it peremptory challenges to strike four black people from the jury.

Court later found that this violated the sixth and fourteenth amendments.

Plantiff, J.E.B., challenged the lower courts' decision allowing the state of Alabama to strike all male jurors. Issue is whether the equal protection clause prohibits intentional discrimination in jury selection based on gender.

Supreme court said jurors should not be dismissed based on gender

Said that 9 out of 12 votes could convict in criminal cases in which hard labor is considered as punishment.

Question: Does less than unanimous jury verdicts in certain cases violate due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th?

Court said it did not violate the 14th. 

Argersinger was charged with carrying a concealed weapon in Florida. He was not represented by an attorney. 

Supreme court said that defendants facing misdemeanors who faced jail time should be given a lawyer.

In Arizona it was up to the judge rather than the jury to decide if the evidence was sufficient to impose the death penalty.

Supreme Court ruled this violated the 6th amendment right to a jury trial. This overruled Spaziano v. Florida

Dual Court System

Systems

Advantages

If a state supreme court makes it clear that there is an independent basis for its decision then the u.s. Supreme court can't overrule it. States provide the ceiling, supreme court provides the floor.

State system: State trial court-court of appeals-state supreme court

Federal system: district court-circuit court-u.s. supreme court

Advantages of federal: better judges, faster, one judge the whole way

Advantages of state: Less formal, judges are less severe

Housing zoning law that said only a certain amount of unrelated people could live together. People argued that it violated person's right to travel, right to migrate and settle, right to privacy.

Supreme court upheld the law saying that the states powers were valid enough to deny housing.

Adamson was charged with murder but did not want to testify on his own behalf because of his past criminal record. On appeal, the defense argued that Adamson's 5th amendment right against self-incrimination had been violated.

Court found that while Adamson's right may have been violated in federal court, those rights did not extend to state courts based on the due process clause of the 14th amendment.

Landmark supreme court case (1966)

Ernesto Miranda was detained and interrogated by police regarding a rape case without being notified of his right to remain silent and to counsel.

Established the Miranda warning must be given to criminal suspects in police custody prior to interrogation.

Dickerson made a statement at the FBI field office concerning a bank robbery where he was a suspect. The government agents did not notify the petitioner of his rights outlined in Miranda. Court of appeals allowed the statement into evidence.

Miranda rights has US constitutional status. Congress cannot overrule Miranda rights.

Alvarado, 17, was interviewed about a crime without his parents. He was not arrested, not mirandized. He confessed involvement and was convicted of second-degree murder.

Issue was the age in custody and that he was read miranda rights after he confessed.

Under the terms of Miranda, a suspect in custody when their freedom of movement is restricted. When in custody they must be read their rights.

Exlusionary

Confessions, Searches, and Pretrial Motions

Prohibits the prosecutor from using illegally obtained evidence during a trial.

Confessions-Miranda warnings

Searches-Mapp v. Ohio said that evidence obtained illegally could not be used

Pretrial Motions-can be filed if an attorney believes his or her client was subjected to an illegal search.

Supreme court decided that a town and it's police department could not be sued for failing to enforce a restraining order.

Police did not violate right to due process

Court-ordered surgical removal of a bullet from the body of a criminal suspect. 

The court must determine the reasonableness or unreasonableness of the search and seizure.

A shopkeeper was wounded by gunshot during robbery. Case moved to state court for an order to undergo surgery to remove a bullet from the respondent. General anesthesia was required. Is it still ok?

Supreme court decided that if it only required local anesthesia then maybe it would be permissible, however, if general anesthesia was required and against the wishes of the suspect then it would be a violation of the 4th amendment.

A sentencing strategy that imprisons certain individuals who are prone to committing crimes and could develop an index or profile that is likely to be recidious. 

Criticism: strong moral opposition exists to the concept. The profile is empirical.

Plea Bargaining

Charge Bargaining

Count Bargaining

Sentence Bargaining

Nebraska judge tried to prevent the media from publishing or broadcasting confessions made by the accused to the police. 

Supreme court said this violated the fourteenth amendment

Trial judge closed the trial to media and public due to mistrials. 

Supreme court said the right to attend trials is explicit in the first amendment.

Supreme court decision that said American wildlife conservation lacked standing to challenge regulations jointly issued by the U.S. secretaries of the interior and commerce.

Scalia said they failed to justify "injury in fact"

Supreme court ruling that said Lyons lacked standing to challenge the city police department's alleged chokehold policy.

He had been put in a chokehold before but lacked evidence there was a sufficiently plausible threat of future injury.

Supreme court decision saying that federal judiciary had no power to interfere with issues regarding apportionment of state legislatures. 

Only congress could determine whether individual state legislatures had fulfilled their responsibility to secure fair representation for citizens. 

A judges complete protection from personal liability for exercising judicial functions.

Exceptions include: Administrative decisions, high crimes, and misdemeanors

Crime control model-decrease crime

Due process model-focuses on individual liberties and rights

"matter prejudged"

A case where there had been a final judgement and is no longer subject to appeal.

In favor of Roe argued it's her body and a violation of privacy to tell her she can't. Those against said the choice was made when she got pregnant.

Supreme court ruled that the privacy needs to be protected along with protecting prenatal life and mother's health.

John Austin

Law is commanded by a sovereign or its agents by force.