September 8, 2011

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 9/8, I distributed three handouts: a case brief template, a sample brief of AAC v. Dearborn, and a paragraph by paragraph classification of the AAC opinion. We spent the class identifying the issues in the AAC case, reviewing the law that the Court was applying, and looking at the key facts that the Court used to resolve the questions. The assignment for Tuesday 9/13 is to read over the three handouts, studying how the Court opinion gets translated into the format of a case brief.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 9/8, we went over the briefs in the Douglas case. We reviewed the function of Section 1983, and of a direct action under the Supremacy clause. We also went over the appeal to original intent found in both briefs, as well as the position of the amicus brief by the U.S. The assignment for Tuesday 9/13 is to read Chapters 4 and 5 of the Burns book.