This assignment has three parts:
- A short "news story" write-up. This must be completed and submitted by 11PM on September 9. Students who be will celebrating a religious holiday on Thursday should submit the assignment earlier.
- A short comment on the piece submitted by someone else in the class. Your comment must be completed and submitted by 11PM on September 12. No one will be admitted to the class without having turned in parts 1 and 2 of this assignment.
- Reading in preparation for class on September 13, which will include an in-class exercise. There's nothing to turn in for this part before class, but you won't be able to do the in-class work without having done the preparation.
Writing assignments due Sept. 9 and Sept. 12
Study the opinion of the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case: Mainstream Marketing Services v. Federal Trade Commission (10th Cir, 2004). While you're at it, look at the information on Locating Judicial Opinions, which will come in handy when you do research for your paper.
Pretend you are a reporter for a major newspaper. Write a short (two- or three-paragraph) news story (not a legal brief) that covers the Court's ruling. Assume that you are writing in February 2004, when the ruling was released. Your story should be accessible to ordinary readers of the newspaper (in 2004). You should explain what the issue was, how the Court ruled, and the Court's reason for ruling that way, and why the public should care.
See how well you can adhere to good journalistic style. Here are some tips on how to write a good news article. This must be turned in on the class Stellar web site by 11PM on September 9. Students who be will celebrating a religious holiday on Thursday should submit the assignment earlier.
Look here for information on turning in writing assignments.
For September 12, write a one-paragraph comment on the news story submitted by somone else in the class. What do you think of this as a news article? Turn in your comment on the Stellar site by 11PM on September 12.
Bring a copy of the Mainstream Marketing ruling with you to class on September 13.
Preparing for this class
In class, we'll be writing briefs of Mainstream Marketing. To prepare for this, first read the Sample Case Brief, which illustrates how to brief the case Cubby v. Compuserve, 776 F.Supp 135 (SDNY, 1991), an important decision about liability of ISPs and system operators. You should at least skim Cubby and then read the brief, noticing how the brief (a) is short; (b) covers the essential elements of the case. We'll be briefing Mainstream Marketing in class. To be able to do that, you'll need to come up to speed on the relevant legal standards. Here, as will be common during the semester, we'll expect you to seek out information on your own, rather than rely only on specific assigned readings. To prepare for class, you'll need to read the case and follow references to other cases. You'll also need to find out things like:
- What does it mean for the court to apply a test?
- What is the Central Hudson test?
- What's meant by scrutiny, and what's the difference between strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny?
- What is the Mainstream court's reasoning in applying the relevant test?
Optional exploration: What does Google know about you?
This exercise is optional. Do it only if you already have a Google account that you have been using for a while.
Sign in to Google and click on Settings. This should bring you to a page entitled Personal Settings. Find Dashboard and click on View settings stored with this account. You'll need to type your password again. Look around on the page to see the data Google has stored about you for its various services. Toward the bottom of the page, find Web history and click on Web under that to see a history of the Web searches you have performed. You can also click on Treands to see summary data about your search behavior on Google.
Preparation for class on Sept. 20 -- Writing assignment due on Thursday, September 16
There will generally be a reading and writing assignment due as preparation for class each week. So get into the habit of, each week, checking the assignment for the following week's class. For next week, there are readings and a two-part writing assignment. Part 1 is due Thursday evening, September 16 ; part 2 is due Sunday evening, September 19. You can find this assignment on the page for next week's class.