May 2, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 5/2, I distributed 2 handouts: an excerpt from the U.S. Supreme Court same sex marriage recognition case of Obergefell v.Hodges, and the U.S. Supreme Court recognition of same sex adoption case of V.L. v. E.L. We first went through Full Faith and Credit and the Finstuen case from the text, and then we went into Chapter 4 and discussed the subject-matter jurisdiction case of Cheap Escape v. Haddox. Regarding subject-matter jurisdiction, I also went over the Maine case of Landmark Realty v. Leasure (2004 ME 85) and the U.S. Supreme Court case of Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing (11/8/2017). We discussed the different requirements of full faith and credit depending on whether there is a state statute involved, versus a state court judgment. We also discussed how lack of subject-matter is a powerful requirement that can never be waived. We saw how the two doctrines, full faith and credit and subject-matter jurisdiction were resolved in the V.L. v. E.L. case

Exam #2 will be Tuesday 5/7 from 8:00-9:15, open-book and open-note. Remember that if you are using a laptop, you may not connect to the internet or do any other function that someone using paper cannot do. If you are missing any handouts, be sure to email me by 8:00 pm on Monday 5/6, and specify exactly which handouts you need a copy of.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Thursday 5/2, I handed back the exams, and we went over them. I also talked about the current free speech case of Nieves v. Bartlett, in which the Court will decide whether the existence of probable cause to arrest a suspect automatically defeats the suspect's later claim that the arrest is based on retaliation for the exercise of his free speech rights.
Have a good summer, and I hope to see some of you next semester.