November 14, 2012

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 11/14, we started with the Hubbard case regarding state court choice of law rules. We looked at how the Indiana Supreme Court changed its 99 year-old rule, and put a new choice of law rule into effect. We then discussed the Land case, and saw how that same Indiana choice of law rule got applied in the federal court system. We went over the difference between a statute of limitations and a statute of repose. We talked about good lawyering and bad lawyering in terms of choice of where to sue. Along the way, we looked at federal court jurisdiction, discussing both federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction, as well as the Erie doctrine. On Friday 11/16 we'll have open-note, open-book exam #2.

POS 359 FEDERALISM
In class today, Wednesday 11/14, we continued going through Ginsburg's dissent in the Commerce Clause portion of her opinion. We finished that opinion. On Friday, we will finish our NFIB discussion with a look back at Roberts' footnotes in which he responds to Ginsburg. The assignment for Friday 11/16 is to continue working on your previously assigned paper, which is due Monday 11/19.

POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Wednesday 11/14, we continued with our discussion of the Florida Supreme Court opinion in Jardines. We started with the Kyllo case, and we discussed various ways in which you might try to distinguish Kyllo (to demonstrate that the sniff at this home-- unlike the thermal detector of the home in Kyllo-- was not a search). We then went through the majority's analysis of why this dog sniff was a "search". We will continue on Friday with the majority's discussion of whether probable cause is needed in order to conduct this search (as opposed to the lower standard of reasonable suspicion). The assignment for Friday 11/16 is to review the remainder of the Jardines opinions, including the concurrence and the dissent.