March 28, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 3/28, we finished our discussion of Lawrence v. Texas. We went over O'Connor's concurring opinion, and Kennedy's allusion to same-sex marriage. We then talked about the 2013 case of U.S. v. Windsor which struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). We discussed how the guarantee of equal protection of the laws came to be applied as a restriction against the federal (not just state) government, despite the absence of language in the constitution to that effect. We talked about the part of DOMA that still is good law. We then began our discussion of Reardon by looking at the three types of law involved in the case, common-law torts, contracts, and statutory limitations on liability. The assignment for Monday 3/31 is to review Reardon and do a case brief of the case (for yourself, not to hand in).


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 3/28, I collected the Virginia v. Black outlines, and we went over them. I hope to return them on Monday. The assignment for Monday 3/31 to to read Snyder v. Phelps, through p. 263.


POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Friday 3/28, we first talked about how not only the sincerity of religious beliefs themselves are not subject to review, but also the sincerity of acceptable level of complicity with others' sins is not subject to review. We went over some free exercise history, going over the cases of Wisconsin v. Yoder (Amish not sending their kids to school) U.S. v. Lee (Amish not paying social security taxes) and Thomas v. Review Board (Jehovah's Witness not building tanks). We started going through four basic clashes between the government and Hobby Lobby. We talked about the views of whether a for-profit corporation is a person that can "exercise religion" (looking also at four different types of corporations); we also outlined the arguments on whether (assuming that this corporation can exercise religion) this contraceptive mandate is a substantial burden. We will continue with the other two major issues (compelling interest and least restrictive alternative) on Monday. The assignment for Monday 3/31 is to read and listen to the oral argument in this case.