April 21, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/21, I distributed one handout, Maine statutes regarding adoptions. We spent the class period discussing the Schroeder case brief. We went over the legal questions addressed by the Court, and the facts that separated the winners from the losers regarding those issues.
We went over the concept of winner's facts and loser's facts, and I added the element of the loser's facts (in the format of "...even though...") to what would make the brief useful. Here's a format example: Under the rules of our class, do you get an "A" for your brief when you follow the format and provide as "facts" that which the Court points to as the line between winners and losers (even though you can come up with more useful formulations than just the conclusions the Court sticks us with). The idea is that the holding say not only that which is sufficient to make a winner, but that it also include that which is insufficient to do so.
We went through the various legal questions posed in the flow chart of the case, stressing the need to have defined limited legal questions so that you end up with holdings that actually help you tell the winners from the losers.
The assignment for Thursday 4/23 is to complete the Schroeder case brief, due at the beginning of class. Make two copies of your case brief. If you cannot be in class, make sure to email your case brief to me before the beginning of class, and make sure that you get my confirmation.

POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/21, I first announced the plan for the second assignment. I'll distribute that assignment on Thursday (4/23) and it will be due on the last day of class (4/30). If there's a decision in the Zivotofsky case tomorrow (Wednesday) then the assignment will involve the decision; if there's no decision tomorrow. the the assignment will involve the briefs and the oral argument.
In terms of the oral argument, we continued our journey through it, reading the tea leaves about the implications of the Justices' questions for how they might then vote. We got through p. 27 of the argument, which is where we'll pick up on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 4/23 is to review the remainder of the Zivotofsky oral argument.