November 19, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 11/19, we first went over some aspects of the Betton case brief due at the beginning of class on Thursday. We then discussed NFIB v. Sebelius from the textbook. I went over a little history of the limitations on Congressional power (no "police power"), and how the interstate commerce power has sometimes had a narrow, and sometimes, a broad, interpretation from the Supreme Court. I gave a little background to the confusing votes in the case, and how the individual mandate was eventually upheld, not under the interstate commerce power, but under Congress' taxing power. I then talked to the class about the current case of Texas v. U.S. in which the U.S. District Court struck down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, as the individual mandate had lost its mooring to the Congressional taxing power. That case is currently awaiting decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. We also talked about the concept of dictum, and saw how that concept came into play in NFIB v. Sebelius.
The assignment for Thursday 11/21 is to finish up the Betton case briefs, due at the beginning of Thursday's class. Also read in the text through p. 107, including State v. Butler,




POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 11/19, I distributed 3 handouts: the Maine Supreme Court opinions in State v. Prescott 2012 ME 96, State v. Bragg, 2012 ME 102, and State v. Jones, 2012 ME 126 (2012 was a very good year for Miranda cases in Maine). I began by discussing the Maine case of State v. Rees, 2000 ME 55, in which the Maine Supreme Court elected not to follow Colorado v. Connnelly. We then went through the elements of the Miranda opinion. In terms of what it means to be in custody, we looked at Berkemer v. McCarty at p. 310 of the text. Finally we discussed the majority and dissenting opinions in J.D.B. and the juvenile suspect.
The assignment for Thursday 11/21 is to read today's three handouts. (If you weren't in class, you can access the cases most easily by going to Google Scholar, selecting "case law" and "select courts", select the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and type the citation into the search dialog box.)