April 25, 2014

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today Friday 4/25, I distributed one handout, the federal statutes governing jurisdiction in the federal court system. We talked about the Land case being brought in Indiana, and how, under the Erie doctrine, both state and federal courts in Indiana would be using the Indiana conflict of law rules. We discussed the Indiana Statute of Repose, and contrasted that to the usual Statute of Limitations. We then went over the Court of Appeals process in following the rule created in Hubbard v.Greeson. Finally, we discussed this case in terms of good or bad lawyering. On Monday I want to begin with one further aspect of this decision, the question of which court has the power to clarify or change the decision in Hubbard. The assignment for Monday 4/28 is to finish Chapter III of text, Finstuen v. Crutcher (pp. 115-118).


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today Friday 4/25, I first reminded the class that the revised due date for the Drake assignment is May 2nd. We finished our review of the New Jersey BIO, going over the section in which they argued that there's no split in the circuits, specifically no clash with the 9th Circuit's Peruta decision. We then turned to the Drake Reply Brief. We're going through as we would in making an outline, trying to discern the point of each paragraph and how that point fits into the larger argument. We will pick up with that paragraph by paragraph analysis at ¶8. The assignment for Monday 4/28 is to continue work on your Drake paper, and to review the Reply Brief, trying to get the sense of the argument in each paragraph.



POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today Friday 4/25, the class took the exam. I will hand the exam back on Monday, and then we'll go on to some more current cases in the Court. The assignment for Monday 4/28 is to show up for class.