February 10, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 2/10, Jim Tierney talked to our class about individual rights, the role and rule of law, federal and state power, religion and government, and much more. We will return to Lawrence v. Texas on Thursday, with the still extant assignment of trying to come up with a case brief of that case, written in your own words and constructed with your own sense of the structure of that opinion (not handed in or graded).


POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 2/10, I distributed two handouts: my version of the outline of the dissent in N.Y. V. U.S., and the Order by Chief Justice Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court instructing the Alabama Judges of Probate (who issue marriage licenses) not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples (despite the U.S. District Court judge's order finding the Alabama ban on such marriages unconstitutional). We went over both the majority and dissenting opinions in N.Y. v. U.S. I corrected what I came to think of as my mistaken view of O'Connor's interpretation of the relationship between Congressional powers and the 10th Amendment. We also discussed the choices of following, distinguishing, or overruling precedent (in this case, Garcia). The assignment for Thursday 2/12 is to read the handouts, read Printz v. U.S. (starting on p. 357) and to outline all of the various opinions in Printz (not handed in or graded).