April 21, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Monday 4/21, I distributed two handouts, the Jeremiah T. comment key, and five Jeremiah T. hypotheticals, as well as returning the class's Jeremiah T. case briefs. We went over the case brief, and the five hypotheticals. Along the way I also discussed another guardianship case, Guardianship of David C., that addressed questions of whether the reason for the creation of the guardianship (consent or otherwise) matters in terms of burden of proof, and how the two burdens of proof (the statutory one and the constitutional one) coexist. We will pick up with conflict of laws on Wednesday with the finish of Collins v. Trius. The assignment for Wednesday 4/23 is to review Hubbard v. Greeson (previously assigned) and to ask yourself how good a job the lawyer for widow Greeson did in making the litigation choices in the case.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Monday 4/21, I first made some changes to Assignment #2: first, the due date for the assignment is changed from Monday 4/28 to Friday 5/2; second, the page length for the paper is increased to 6 pages. I distributed one handout, a news report of the militia standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management, which has apparently ended with the federal government backing down. We talked about the role of citizen's militias in the Heller decision, and whether things would have looked the same in New Jersey. We went back to the New Jersey BIO, discussing the evidence offered to demonstrate a reasonable fit, as well as appeals to history, consensus, and common sense. We began the final section of the BIO, which argues that there really is no clash between the 9th Circuit decision in Peruta and the 3rd Circuit decision here. That's where we'll pick up on Friday. The assignment for Friday 4/25 is to review that final section of the BIO, and the Drake Reply Brief, and to continue work on the assignment. On Wednesday 4/23, Shenna Bellows will talk to our class about Civil Liberties. Please come to class on time.


POS359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Monday 4/21, I first went over the cases and materials that will be covered on Friday's exam. I then finished our discussion of the U.A.R.G. v. EPA case, emphasizing the questions that Justice Kennedy posed to both sides in the oral argument. I reached back to the case we started a long time ago, but never finished, Schuette v. BAMN. This case addressed the constitutionality of an amendment to the Michigan constitution that outlawed any affirmative action in the state. We went over three prior Supreme Court cases with similar setups (the majority putting a political goal beyond the reach of a minority). The assignment for Wednesday 4/23 is to show up for class.