January 22, 2008

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 1/22, we began by discussing a Maine case regarding preemption that the Supreme Court just accepted. We spent most of the class going carefully through the AAC v. Dearborn case. We got through the 30 day notice requirement. We also discussed the concept of mandatory authority v. persuasive authority. On Thursday 1/24, we will finish with the AAC case, and then continue with Chapter 1 of the text. The assignment for Thursday is to review Chapter 1 of the text.

CMJ 373--Mass Media Law
In class today, Tuesday 1/22, we began by discussing a Maine case regarding preemption that the Supreme Court just accepted. We discussed the Boehner v. McDermott decision of the D.C. Circuit, and how the different opinions in that case reflected different readings of the holding in the Bartnicki case. We also discussed the concepts of mandatory authority v. persuasive authority, and following v. distinguishing precedent. The assignment for Thursday is to read the rest of Chapter 2 of the text.