April 14, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/14, I distributed one handout, articles about retroactive application (Miller and Wisconsin Chief Justice status). We then went over Hubbard v. Greeson. We covered the different substantive laws of Indiana and Illinois, the different choice of law rules for the two states, and the decision by the Indiana Supreme Court to change its choice of rules right before our eyes. We also discussed the two-step process chosen by the Indiana Supreme Court as its new choice of law rule. We then began our discussion of Land v. Yamaha. We went over federal trial court jurisdiction (federal question and diversity), federal court organization, and federal court citation format. We went over the Erie doctrine. We got as far in the Land case brief as the plaintiff's cause of action, which is where we'll pick up on Thursday. The additional assignment for Thursday 4/16 is to finish reading Chapter III of the text (Finstuen v. Crutcher).


POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/14, I distributed one handout, the transcript of the oral argument in Zivotofsky. We went through the two assigned briefs in the case. Among the questions we discussed were: why doesn't Kerry's brief use the word "unconstitutional"; what was Bush's signing statement, and what is its relationship to the flow chart of the constitution; what were the two major points of Petitioner's position, and how did Kerry respond. The assignment for Thursday 4/16 is to read through p. 24 of the oral argument (and I suggested listening as well, at supremecourt.gov; oral arguments; argument audio; argument session November 3-12)