February 14, 2012

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 2/14, we first talked about schedules. This Thursday 2/16, the Degenhardt case briefs are due. I will return them on Tuesday 2/21. Also on Tuesday, I will go over some practice exam questions. The exam will be on Thursday 2/23 (open-book and open-note, but only your own). In class, I went over some pointers about briefing Degenhardt. One point was that the "key facts" are those that are in favor of the winning side; if you want to put the loser's facts in, a format for doing that is to use this formulation: "...when [the winner's facts} even though [the loser's facts}." We also went over the levels of review by an appellate court e.g. sufficient evidence, clear error, do novo, etc. I clarified that, even though these were part of Degenhardt, you did not have to include them in your case brief. I introduced the vocabulary of "extending" authority, which has the same side winning as in the concept of "following" authority, but extends that rule into new factual territory. We saw examples of extending authority in both Katko and Suggs. We finished up our discussion of the Maine defense of premises statute. We began our discussion of Suggs v. Norris, getting through the first two issues: whether public policy forbids the enforcement of a contract between co-habitors, and whether there was evidence that this agreement was not meretricious. We will finish Suggs on Thursday, assuming there's time left after our discussion of Degenhardt. The assignment for Thursday 2/16 is to finish the Degenhardt case brief, due at the beginning of class on Thursday.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, 2/14, I went over six cases that either have been or soon will be, argued before the Court. The class then voted, and the choice was to write the next paper on FCC v. Fox. The assignment for Thursday 2/16 is to read the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision that's under review in this case. The opinion can be found in many ways, but an easy way to find it is to start at www.scotusblog.com. At the top right of their home page there is a pull down menu for the OT11 Cases. Select FCC v. Fox. At the top of that page, there's a link to the "Opinion Below". Selecting that link takes you to the Bloomberg law publication of the Second Circuit 2010 opinion (613 F.3d 317). Read the opinion for Thursday 2/16, including following the Court's organizational outline.