April 3, 2012

POS 282--Introduction to American Law
In class today Tuesday 4/3, I discussed a number of historical Supreme Court Commerce Clause cases: Gibbons v. Ogden (1824); U.S. v. Knight (1895); U.S. v. Butler (1936); Carter v. Carter Coal (1936); NLRB v.Jones and Laughlin (1937); Wickard v. Filburn (1942); U.S. v. Lopez (1995); U.S. v. Morrison (2000). We then went over Gonzales v. Raich from the text. In addition to the Commerce Clause, we also looked at the Necessary and Proper clause, and the Tenth Amendment. We talked about the substantive Due Process clause argument made by Raich, and I went over the 2007 decision by the Ninth Circuit regarding substantive due process, Raich v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d 857 (9th Cir., 2007). On Thursday, I plan to distribute the next case-briefing assignment, which I plan to make due on Thursday 4/12. I also plan to discuss the implications of Gonzales v. Raich for the Affordable Care Act argument that the Court heard last week. The additional reading assignment for Thursday 4/5 is to read through p. 109 of the text.

POS 359--The Current Supreme Court Term
In class today, Tuesday 4/3, I handed back the FCC v. Fox papers. I went over yesterday's strip-search decision. We then talked about the history of health insurance, the Maine death spiral experience in the individual market, the history of the Commerce Clause, the argument regarding violations of individual liberty, and the Tenth Amendment. All of this is leadup to the actual oral argument, previously assigned, which we will start going over in detail on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 4/5 is to review that previously assigned oral argument.