Overview
Part I:
Throughout this class, we will explore a series of fact patterns. A fact pattern is a fictitious story used in law school to explore legal issues.To start our class, let's explore the following fact pattern.
Jimmy O'Leary, a nineteen-year-old African American, was expelled from Dead End High School in Brooklyn, New York. Even though Jimmy had a long history of disciplinary issues that included possession of drugs on campus, disrespect to his peers and teachers, and several fist fights over the years, Dead End High expelled Jimmy for his academic performance and attendance record. Jimmy also has a history of untreated and undiagnosed mental illness and a troubled home that includes domestic violence and child abuse by his adoptive parents.
After his expulsion, Jimmy falls into a deep depression and begins to believe that Dan Varney, a History Professor who happens to be Jewish at Dead End High, played a major role in his expulsion. Jimmy erroneously believes that Professor Varney reported him for making comments during a classroom discussion involving Kayne West and Kyrie Irving that several students viewed as supporting anti-Semitism. However, Professor Varney and the students in his class never reported Jimmy, and his expulsion was unrelated to the classroom discussion.
To get even with the school and Professor Varney, Jimmy, on the eve of Yom Kippur, decides to call in a false bomb threat to Dead End High. To disguise his identity, Jimmy employs a voice disguiser and uses a phone number generated from an internet service that masks his location and displays a Birmingham, Alabama, phone number. In the call to Dead End High, he stated, "This is Aryan Nation, and we have placed a bomb in Professor Varney's classroom set to go off on Yom Kippur."
While the school was closed on Yom Kippur, the school administrators took the threat very seriously and called the local police, who searched the entire school. The local news stations covered the bomb threat and the subsequent search of the school. Many commentators argued that the latest incident demonstrates the rise of white supremacy groups and the need for more security to protect schools.
Jimmy, who got a thrill from not getting caught, decides to make another threat to a Jewish Community Center in Deal, New Jersey, that he randomly selected. During the call, Jimmy states, "We have been monitoring your site for the past few weeks, and we intend to attack the center when you least expect it." This threat prompts the hiring of additional security by the Jewish Community Center and a call to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI uses high-tech means to locate Jimmy based on his internet footprint. Thereafter, the FBI obtains a warrant to seize Jimmy's computers and search the apartment that he shares with his grandmother. When they search the apartment, they locate manuals on how to make bombs, chemicals, and a stack of old Soldier of Fortune magazines. Based on the evidence obtained from the search warrant, the FBI arrests Jimmy. Before being provided with his Miranda warnings, the police question Jimmy about his calls and connections to various hate groups and ask him whether he has sent out any bombs or whether he called in fake bomb threats.
If your name ends in the letters A to J, please assume that you are Jimmy's attorney.
If your name ends in the letters K to Z, please assume that you represent the FBI. (i am in this one)
Did law enforcement violate Jimmy's right to remain silent? If the questioning was permissible without Miranda warning, can the police use any evidence obtained during the questioning to prosecute Jimmy?
Part II.
Please review the Department of Homeland Security's website and then review please visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website.
Some commentators have criticized how the United States responded to the COVID pandemic. Is a national health crisis like COVID a homeland security that should fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security? What types of threats and risks to "homeland security" fall within the scope of this class and to the field of homeland security?
One of the criticisms of the governmental response was that too many agencies were involved. Would a centralized response have more effectively addressed the pandemic? Are there any lessons learned from China's response to COVID? For example, was the United States' response limited by legal restrictions not present in China?