January 15, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 1/15, I distributed one handout, the case brief template. Before we started our discussion of the Lane case, we first went over proper citation form for Maine Supreme Court opinions (both pre- and post- 1997). We also went over the sets of books that report decisions of the three levels of federal courts. We went over court organization, both in the Maine courts and for the federal courts. We discussed the concept of authority, which we divided into primary and secondary, and then subdivided primary into persuasive and mandatory. Discussing Lane, we went over the questions from Tuesday's handout, as well as going over the concept of abuse of discretion. We will begin next Tuesday by going through the same process for the Gregory case. The additional homework for Tuesday 1/20 is to read in the text through p. 22 (the Miller case).


POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Thursday 1/15, I distributed one handout, an article about the House's attempt to thwart Obama's immigration policy. We discussed it, and the two previous handouts, looking at how the constitution deals with conflicts between the three powers. In terms of the judicial power, we also talked about the concept of standing. We then went through some of the questions that Epps raises in terms of what the words of the constitution might mean. We will continue with Articles II, III, and IV next Tuesday. The assignment for Tuesday 1/20 is to read in Epps through p. 78.