September 19, 2012

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 9/19, we finished going over the VSDA opinion and case brief. We discussed the concept of dictum, and also mandatory v. persuasive authority, as well as following. distinguishing and overruling precedent. I then began going over the subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the same violent video case, getting through the majority opinion by Justice Scalia. We will continue on Friday with the concurring opinion, as well as the two dissenting opinions. The assignment for Friday 9/21 is to read the Glucksberg case (through p. 32 of the text). Then write out your version of the case brief of the majority opinion in the case (Rehnquist's opinion). Even though you are writing the brief, it will not be collected or graded. Also add a sentence or two about how Justice Souter's opinion differs from the majority, even though it comes to the same judgment (which side wins).

POS 359 FEDERALISM
In class today, Wednesday 9/19, we continued with our dissection of the McCullough opinion. We got as far as the point that "necessary" does not mean "absolutely necessary". We will pick up at that point on Friday. The assignment for Friday 9/21 is to review the McCullough opinion again, outlining the arguments made by the state and Marshall's response to those arguments.

POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Wednesday 9/19, we continued with our discussion of the Greenhouse book. I took a close look at the 2003 Hibbs case, in which the Court approved of Congress' abrogation of state sovereign immunity under one part of the Family and Medical Leave Act, versus the 2012 Coleman v. Court of App. of Md. case, in which the Court voted 5-4 against Congress' power to do the same thing under another part of the same law. We also looked at how the Court's distinction between the two situations made no sense to at least 5 members of the Court, and probably to all nine. On Friday 9/21 we will move to the oral arguments scheduled for the first two weeks of the Court's calendar. There is no reading required for Friday's class, but you certainly are invited to research the upcoming cases yourselves by going to the supremecourt.gov site, selecting "merits briefs", then "online merits briefs", and the "October 2012".