November 17, 2011

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Thursday 11/17, we first went over the Apsey case, and then the Michigan Supreme Court reversal of that Court of Appeals decision. I then went over the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision of Davis v. U.S., in which the Court ruled that the retroactivity rules regarding 4th Amendment decisions do not automatically also apply to the remedy of exclusion of evidence of unconstitutional searches and seizures. We compared the retroactivity rules laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Griffith v. Kentucky with those of the Apsey court. We then discussed the Strunk case regarding the absence of precedent. The assignment for Tuesday 11/22 is to read and be prepared to discuss pp. 140-149 of the text. On Tuesday 11/22 I will also distribute the next briefing assignment for the class, which will be due on Thursday 12/1.

POS 259--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Thursday 11/17, we went over the Jones predictions, and I collected the papers. I plan to grade them this weekend, and return them on Tuesday. The assignment for Tuesday 11/22 is to read the Court of Appeals decision in our next case, Zivotofsky v. Clinton, 571 F.3d 1227 (D.C. Cir., 2009). This is the case that came in second in our last balloting. I will also be soliciting your opinions about a preferred specific assignment for the Zivotofsky case.