November 5, 2012

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 11/5, I distributed one handout, an article concerning the upcoming Florida Supreme Court retention vote, and how a non-partisan election got turned into a highly partisan contest. We discussed the Caperton case, and the rules developed by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine when there is a substantial risk of actual judicial bias. We will continue with the previously-assigned case of Gonzales v. Raich on Wednesday. Be prepared to discuss all of the segments that we would put into a case brief of the case, as well as how the concurring and dissenting opinions differ from the majority.

POS 359 FEDERALISM
In class today, Monday 11/5, we first finished our discussion of Morrison, reviewing the ways in which the Souter and Breyer dissenting opinions disagreed with the majority. We then began our discussion of Gonzalez v. Raich. We looked at how two Justices could switch sides from the outcome that they approved in Lopez. We looked at how Justice Thomas would consider a very broad challenge to federal authority. And we discussed the four characteristics by which Raich sought to carve out an exception to federal power over the drug traffic generally. We will continue with Raich on Wednesday. The additional assignment for Wednesday 11/7 is to read Justices Roberts' commerce clause discussion in NFIB v. Sebelius. That discussion is found in Part III (A) of his opinion, pp. 15-30 of his slip opinion.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Monday 11/5, I handed back the Fisher papers, and we briefly went over them. I discussed today's Supreme Court decision about attorney fees in free speech cases. I then went over the cases that are currently being heard by the Court. On Wednesday, 11/7 we will vote on which case the class would like to tackle for our next case. The assignment is simply to think about which case you prefer.