April 7, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/7, I first gave short history of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the interstate commerce clause. I then went into the policies behind the ACA. We went through Roberts' opinion in detail, and more briefly, through Ginsburg's dissent and the "joint dissent". The assignment for Thursday 4/9 is to read through p.110 of the text (including both Butler and Dempsey).


POS 383 AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/7, I first talked about the concept of "privilege", and the lack of textual sources for the concept of executive privilege. We went through U.S. v. Nixon. We then talked about Mississippi v. Johnson and when the judiciary can force the executive to either do or refrain from doing its job. We compared the approaches of the U.S. v. Nixon Court with that of the Mississippi v. Johnson Court. We're going to move on to the power of the legislative and executive branches regarding foreign policy. The assignment for Thursday 4/9 is to read in the text pp. 171-175 and 252-256.