January 26, 2010

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Tuesday 1/26, I distributed two handouts: one was the assignment for Thursday, which is reproduced below, and the other was the two formal questions on which the Supreme Court had granted certiorari. We started our discussion of the Wood case, going over the procedure in habeus corpus cases, the questions that the majority did and did not decide to answer, and the facts that they looked at regarding the evidence before the state court. We looked at the structure and outline of the majority opinion. We will continue (and finish) our discussion of Wood on Thursday.

Assignment for Thursday 1/28/2010:

Please read and prepare to discuss the following articles and commentary regarding last week’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC. (Some of these sites may require (free) registration.)

Two articles by Adam Liptak in the New York Times—

“Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit” 1/22/10
www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html

“Justices Turn Minor Movie Case Into Blockbuster” 1/23/10
www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/us/politics/23scotus.html

An article by Robert Barnes in the Washington Post—

“Justice Kennedy Was Key to Conservatives Win in Campaign Finance Decision” 1/24/10
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/23/AR2010012302679_pf.html


An article in the New York Sun by Joseph Goldstein—

“ACLU May Reverse Course on Campaign Finance Limits After Supreme Court Ruling” 1/24/2010

www.nysun/com/national/aclu-may-reverse-course-on-campaign-finance/86899/

The editorial in the 1/26/10 Bangor Daily News

“Corporate Citizenship”
www.bangordailynews.com/detail/135505.html