January 22, 2009

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 1/22, we first discussed some ways in which we see Toobin's description of the judicial tendencies of the Justices being played out in other cases. I then briefly talked about four of the five cases decided by the Court yesterday, and talked in more detail about the fifth case, Pearson v. Callahan, which dealt with the flow chart for determining whether police are entitled to qualified immunity when they are sued for their (mis)deeds. The assignment for Tuesday, 1/27 is to read Part III of the Toobin book.

CMJ 375--Mass Media Law
In class today, Thursday 1/22, we went over more of Chapter 2 of the text, including detailed discussions of the three casebook cases assigned, Simon & Schuster, Tornillo, and McIntyre. I also discussed one U.S. Supreme Court case decided yesterday, Locke v. Karass, which discussed compelled speech under the First Amendment in the context of union activities. On Tuesday 1/27, we will finish our discussion of Chapter 2 of the text, and move on to Chapter 3. The assignment for Tuesday 1/27 is to read and prepare to discuss pp. 81-93 of the textbook, and the case of N.Y. Times v. U.S. starting on p. 40 of the casebook.