April 28, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/28, the first thing we decided was that we have have our exam (on Thursday 5/7) not starting at 8:00 as originally scheduled, but rather starting at 8:45. I distributed one handout, the Schroeder Comment Key. I handed back the Schroeder case briefs, and we briefly talked about them. I then talked a little about today's U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, the same sex marriage cases. I talked about how the Supreme Court will consider non-recognition of other state's same-sex marriages, and how that relates to the Full Faith and Credit issue that we studied in Finstuen. We then went on the Chapter IV of the text. I talked about Maine's court organization (unique in the country), and the concepts of both subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction (and compared the latter with the concept of conflict of laws). We went over the Cheap Escape case, and, after we translated the case to English, went over how good lawyering could lead to surprisingly good results for a deadbeat debtor. We also discussed the difference between the concept of venue versus the concept of subject matter jurisdiction. I then went over a Maine Supreme Court case, Landmark Realty v. Leasure, which clarified what we mean in Maine by "subject matter jurisdiction", and why it matters so much whether that label attaches or not. I plan to begin on Thursday with a U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed the same issue for the federal courts. We will then go on to our final subject, personal jurisdiction. The assignment for Thursday 4/30 is to review Swoboda, previously assigned.

POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/28, we first went over the schedule for our exam next week. It will be on Tuesday 5/5 from 10:30 until 11:45 (not until 12:30). I then talked about two recent Supreme Court constitutional law cases. In one, Oneok v. LearJet, the Court issued an opinion last week about the question of whether federal regulation of the natural gas market preempted state anti-trust regulation of that same market. In the other, the Supreme Court heard oral argument last week in Horne v. Dept. of Agriculture, which raised the question of whether federal regulation of the raisin market amounted to an unconstitutional taking without just compensation. The assignment for Thursday 4/30 is to finish your Zivotofsky papers, previously assigned, which are due at the beginning of class.