March 24, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today. Monday 3/24, we went over the three Maine statutes included in the handout from last week. We discussed Holland v. Florida, and the creation of common law crimes. We then began our discussion of Lawrence v. Texas by going over the fast-changing historical arc of legal treatment of gays and lesbians. We also discussed the 1986 case of Bowers v. Hartwick. The assignment for Wednesday 3/26 is to review Lawrence v. Texas, previously assigned.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today. Monday 3/24, I first clarified a few aspects of the outline assignment that's due this Friday. First, in terms of format of the outline, I clarified that if there's a "1,2,3" under an "A", then the "A" only needs to be a question, and not a question and answer. Also we went over how, if a Justice is implicitly, rather than explicitly, addressing a question, you can (and should) include that question in your outline. We then turned to the R.A.V. handouts. We went over White's analysis of overbreadth, and how the St. Paul ordinance might have been fixed to address his concerns. We then turned to Scalia's explanation of how it still is permissible to criminalize some content-based subsets of unprotected speech, even though St. Paul's subset was not constitutional. The assignment for Wednesday 3/26 is to continue working on your outlines. To the extent that you have time, also read Snyder v. Phelps, up to p. 263 of the text.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today. Monday 3/24, after returning the Lozano papers, I also distributed one handout, the text of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). I went over a brief history of the Free Exercise clause, the Emplyment Division v. Smith decision, and RFRA. We then went through the first 3 pieces (roman numerals) of the Petitioner's argument in Hobby Lobby. The assignment for Wednesday 3/26 is to review the Petitioner's brief in Hobby Lobby, previously assigned.