October 27, 2011

POS 282--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 10/27, I handed back last Tuesday's exams, and we went over them. We then had a brief discussion about the role of ethics and morality both in the formation, as well as in the enforcement, of public policy. We will start next Tuesday with the Gregg capital punishment case. The additional assignment for Tuesday, 11/1 is to read through p. 78 of the text (the Mobbley case).

POS 395--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, we held our Judicial Conference in which each student Justice explained how they ruled, and why. I will return the Opinions on Tuesday. The assignment for Tuesday 11/1 is to prepare an oral presentation to the class about the case that you chose or that was assigned to you. Go to the merits briefs tab on the Supreme Court website, find the case on the ABA site that you are directed to. Read enough of the briefs so that you can talk for about 5 minutes on the issues presented in the case, the scope of the question presented, and any previously decided cases that have set the rules for the resolution of your case (like Bell v. Wolfish set the background for the Florence case). Try to make your presentation interesting and understandable. After the presentations we will vote on the next case for the class to tackle.