November 7, 2012

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 11/7, I first discussed some election results of particular note to our class, specifically the Florida vote on retention of their Supreme Court Justices, and the votes in Colorado and Washington that legalized the recreational use of marijuana. We then began our discussion of Raich, but only got up to the "issue" in the case. The assignment for Friday 11/9 is to brief the issue(s) in Raich, and also to read and prepare to discuss through p. 105 of the text. I also announced the plan to have our Exam #2 on Friday 11/16.


POS 359 FEDERALISM
In class today, Wednesday 11/7, I distributed one handout, a news article about the passage by Colorado and Washington of state laws permitting the recreational use of marijuana. We talked then about the Attorney General's enforcement of the federal law that was upheld in Raich. We then finished our discussion of Raich. On Friday 11/9 we will discuss the Roberts' Commerce Clause opinion in NFIB (pp. 15-30 of the slip opinion), previously assigned.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Wednesday 11/7, I distributed one handout, a news article about the passage by Colorado and Washington of state laws permitting the recreational use of marijuana. We talked about whether a case regarding the power of the state to do this would likely reach the Supreme Court, as suggested by a commentator. We voted on the next case to study, and the class chose Florida v. Jardines, a case raising the issue of whether a police dog sniff on a porch is a 4th Amendment search. The assignment for Friday 119 is to read the Florida Supreme Court decision that is on appeal. The case can be found by going to the Fogler Lexis site, and entering the citation to the case, 73 So.3d 34.