February 21, 2007

POS 282 --Introduction to American Law
When I assigned the Philip Morris case on Monday, I had no idea that the Supreme Court would hand down its ruling in the case on Tuesday. If they had just waited one more week. it would have been great timing...As it is though, it does create a problem with an assignment that asked you to make a prediction in the case.
Anyway, here's how I've decided to deal with this new development: You will have a choice of doing one of two things.
1) You may just do the original assignment. Go ahead and do your analysis and make your prediction just as assigned. If you do this, I ask you to not read anything more about the decision, because it would be like placing bets now on the last month's Superbowl-not really sporting.
or
2) You may write a paper (2-3 pages) that discusses the issues that were presented to the Supreme Court, and what issues the Supreme Court ultimately ruled on. Summarize the majority opinion, and summarize each of the three dissenting opinions, emphasizing on which point(s) each dissenting opinion disagrees with the majority. Also, go back to the oral argument, and show how the questions asked at oral argument did (or did not) reflect the ultimate viewpoint of at least 2 of the Justices. Finally, explain which opinion(s) you find the most persuasive, and why.
The link to the decision may be found at the Supreme court site at
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06slipopinion.html