February 22, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 2/22, we continued our discussion of Suggs v. Norris. We went through the three basic issues discussed by the Court. We examined the types of authority relied on by the Court to decide the policy issue of whether any contract like this one with an unmarried couple would be enforceable, and then looked at the evidentiary issues regarding the the characterization of this contract, and the evidence about whether there was such a contract in the circumstances of this case. We will start with the case of Gregg v. Georgia, previously assigned, on Monday.

POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 2/22, I distributed two handouts; an article about the actual limitations imposed by Heller, and an abridged version of the recent Seventh Circuit gun rights case of Moore v. Madigan. We finished our discussion of the Heller case, going over both the methods used by the Court in determining the meaning of the Second Amendment, and the specific restrictions that were put beyond governmental power to abridge. I then very briefly went over the incorporation of this Bill of Rights protection to the states in the McDonald case. The assignment for Monday 2/25 is to read and prepare to discuss the Moore v. Madigan handout. If you missed class today, you can (and should) email me to have me send you the edited version of the Opinion. Alternatively, you can read the unedited version of the 12/11/12 Moore v. Madigan Opinion available from Lexis.