April 5. 2011

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term 2011
In class today, Tuesday 4/5, I first finished going over the Davis oral argument (good faith exception to the exclusionary rule when following precedent). I then discussed yesterday's Arizona Christian School decision (no taxpayer standing to challenge tax credit to religious schools). We began our discussion of the al-Kidd Court of Appeals decision. We went over the three causes of action by al-Kidd, and the Court's disposition of the absolute immunity defense. We will continue with the Court of Appeals decision on Thursday. The additional assignment for Thursday 4/7 is to read the dissenting opinion in that same Court of Appeals.

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 4/5, we first went over the Apsey case, and discussed retroactive v. prospective application of court decisions. I also reported that the decision in the text was reversed on appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. We then talked about a recent Maine Supreme Court decision, Guardianship of Jeremiah T., 2009 ME 74, which discussed retroactive v. prospective application of a statutory change in Maine's law regarding termination of a guardianship. We also covered the Strunk case about the absence of precedent. We began a discussion of Conflict of Law rules and the Hubbard case. We will pick up with Hubbard on Thursday. The additional reading for Thursday is to read the Land case on p. 180 of the text. For both cases, prepare for yourself a case brief of the decision to aid in our discussion (not to be handed in).