Today in the Community: December 5, 2011
on Dec 5, 2011 at 9:07 am
Today in the Community we turn to an area of law that has received a great deal of attention in recent years: the Confrontation Clause. With the Court set to consider the Clause again tomorrow, when it hears oral argument in Williams v. Illinois, this topic will be the focus of our Community’s attention for the full upcoming week.
Our subtopic for today is directed at law students who have taken or who are currently taking Evidence, as well as the professors who teach that class. As these students and professors can attest, the Clause represents one of the more challenging subjects in the Court’s jurisprudence. Our question is:
How have the Court’s recent Confrontation Clause decisions affected law school evidence classes? Have you used any of the Court’s recent Confrontation Clause decisions – Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, Bullcoming v. New Mexico, Michigan v. Bryant – as a teaching tool to illuminate the Court’s Confrontation Clause jurisprudence? If so, how did you use the cases: did you read them, debate them in class, listen to oral argument? As a general matter, do you think the use of timely cases in the classroom is helpful?
