October 27, 2009

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 10/27, I distributed one handout, the federal statute in which Congress authorized the U.S. Attorney General to change the classification of prohibited drugs. We spent most of the class period going over the case of Gonzalez v. Raich, the medical marijuana case. We discussed it mainly in terms of the power relations shown in the decision: federal power v. state power; judicial v. legislative v. executive power; and also governmental power v. individual rights. The assignment for Thursday 10/29 is to read and prepare to discuss through p. 140 of the text.