October 20, 2011

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 10/20, I began by going over federal court jurisdiction, both diversity jurisdiction and federal question jurisdiction. I had a sample test for the class, going over the types of questions that you might expect on Tuesday's test. We then finished the Lawrence case, and also discussed Connecticut v. Doe. The assignment for Tuesday 10/25 is to prepare for the open-book, open-note test on Tuesday. It will cover all of the material covered in class thus far.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 10/20, we went over the Essex County Brief, and the Carter Phillips oral argument in which Phillips occasionally defended that brief. The assignment for Tuesday October 25 is to read two Court of Appeals decisions in this line of cases. One is the Florence 3rd Circuit decision, Florence v. Board, 621 F.3d 296 (3rd Cir., 2010) and the other is an older First Circuit case, Roberts v. Rhode Island, 239 F.2d 107 (1st. Cir., 2001). These opinions can be accessed from the Fogler site by going to library.umaine.edu; select Indexes and databases; select Lexis Nexis Academic, and put in the citation. You should also be working on your Opinions, which are due on Thursday 10/27.