November 12, 2013

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 11/12, we first went over questions regarding the case brief due Thursday, including the use of the information in the text that you will need to use to fill in the introductory portions of the case brief. We then discussed the Gonzales v. Raich Supreme Court opinion. We looked at the history of Supreme Court opinions regarding the commerce clause, the relationship between the commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause, and the treatment of prior Court cases (Wickard, Lopez, and Morrison). I also discussed the most recent Supreme Court pronouncement on the commerce clause, NFIB v. Sebelius (Obamacare). The assignment for Thursday 11/14 is to finish work on the Raich v. Gonzales Court of Appeals case brief, previously assigned, due at the beginning of class on Thursday.

POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Tuesday 11/12, the class first voted on the subject matter for the second assignment. The winner was a case dealing with the 6th Amendment confrontation clause. I plan to distribute the assignment on either 11/14 or (more likely) 11/19, with a due date of 11/26. We then went through the assigned reading for today, the Powell case and Gideon v. Wainwright. For both cases we concentrated on the different views of the majority and the dissent or concurrence. The assignment for Thursday 11/14 is to read and prepare to discuss through p. 561 of the text.