April 10, 2012

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today, Tuesday 4/10, I first went over the Supreme Court case regarding the right of a state to prosecute a person for refusing to give the police his or her name, Hiibel v. Nevada (2004). We then began our discussion of how to brief Collins v. Trius, and I stressed the importance of gathering information from the footnotes of the case, including the assigned issue from footnote #6. We went over the textbook case of Hubbard v. Greeson, reviewing how that case would be briefed as well. The assignment for Thursday 4/12 is to complete the Collins case brief, previously assigned. Also on Thursday we will discuss the Dempsey case (p. 106, previously assigned) as time permits.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Tuesday 4/10, we continued our journey through the Tuesday ACA oral argument. We discussed the nature of the Roberts' questioning at the end of the interstate commerce section of Verrilli's argument, and then we went into the argument regarding the taxing power (as opposed to the interstate commerce power). I also gave an introduction to the assignment for Thursday 4/12, which is to read the Wednesday 3/28 oral argument in the Florida v. DHHS ACA case. In this part of the argument, the states challenge the right of the federal government to "coerce" them into expanding their Medicaid eligibility standards.