December 3, 2012

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 12/3, I handed back the Quirion case briefs, as well as the key to my comments, and we went over that case brief. We then finished the Cheap Escape case and the concept of subject matter jurisdiction. We will start with Robey (p. 130) and personal jurisdiction on Wednesday. The additional assignment for Wednesday 12/5 is to read through p. 140 of the text.

POS 359 FEDERALISM
In class today, Monday 12/3, the class first did evaluations. Then I distributed one handout, an article about the history of the Norridgewock dump, which talks about the history of Maine waste disposal rules after the Philadelphia v. N.J. Supreme Court decision. We finished going over the articles about fracking and wind turbines, touching along the way on the takings clause, not-in-my-backyard issues, local control, unpasteurized milk, bias in "scientific" studies, and, above all, money. On Wednesday 12/5 we will continue with the Philadelphia v. N.J. and Tyler Pipe Supreme Court decisions, previously assigned.

POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Monday 12/3, the class first did evaluations. We then discussed the due date for assignment #2. I decided to change the original due date. The new due date for assignment #2 is Monday 12/10. I also went over the lack of a decision by the Supreme Court on which, if any, gay marriage case they will accept for review. The Court seems to be ignoring the needs of our semester calendar. I will therefore just pick a gay marriage case assignment for the optional third paper, and hope that the Court follows my lead. We then went over four cases discussing the concept that the subjective motivation of the police is not relevant to the reasonableness of their actions: Whren v. U.S., Brigham City v. Stuart, Michigan v, Fisher, and Kentucky v, King. The assignment for Wednesday 12/5 is to continue work on your Jardines paper, now due Monday 12/10.