January 29, 2008

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 1/29, I distributed one handout, a sample brief for the Glucksberg case. We first went over how to outline the Glucksberg decision, and then discussed some of the issues regarding physician-assisted suicide and fundamental rights. We began going over the sample brief of Glucksberg, but did not finish. On Thursday 1/31 we will finish that case, and then discuss the Sex Offender Registry case. After that on Thursday, we will go over how to brief the Katko case on p. 47. The assignment for Thursday 1/31 is to prepare a brief of the Katko case,for discussion in class. You will not hand your brief in, but I do expect you to be prepared with your version of the brief. Also on Thursday, I will assign your first graded homework assignment, a case brief, which will be due Thursday 2/7.

CMJ 375--Mass Media Law
In class today, Tuesday 1/29, we began with a discussion of the free speech rights of professors in private colleges. We then discussed the law regarding prior restraint. I went over the Maine case of Maine Board of Dental Examiners v. Dhuy 2003 ME 75. We went over a variety of issues from Chapter 2 of the text, including: the use of original intent to decide the meaning of the Constitution, the scope of the Bill of Rights as being limited to Congress only, (as opposed to the other branches of the federal government), FCC rule changes regarding the concentration of media ownership, and the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta regarding the rights of shareholders to sue companies which engaged in fraud together with the company whose stock price was being manipulated. The assignment for Thursday 1/31 is to read Chapter 3 of the textbook.