November 12, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 11/12, I distributed one handout, the Maine constitutional provision having to do with the veto of bills by the Governor. I discussed a recent Maine Supreme Court Case, Opinion of the Justices of 8/6/2015, 2015 ME 107, that dealt with the adjournment of the Legislature and the "prevention" of the Governor's ability to veto a bill. We then went over the idea of a federal government of enumerated power, as opposed to state governments which possess the police power. We talked about the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Congressional power to regulate interstate commerce, and how that interpretation has changed over time. We went over the complicated mechanism of Obamacare, and the assertion of power by Congress from different constitutional provisions in order to impose the individual mandate. We then got to Roberts' opinion in NFIB, in which Roberts went over the assertion of power under the interstate commerce clause. We will pick up next Tuesday with Ginsburg's opinion in NFIB. The assignment for Tuesday 11/17 is to review the remainder of NFIB and State v. Butler (previously assigned) and to read in addition Dempsey v. Allstate (through p. 110 of the text).

POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Thursday 11/12, I collected the Bible Believers papers. I plan to grade them this weekend and return them next Tuesday. I distributed one handout, an excerpt from Scalia's R.A.V. opinion that the textbook did not give us, which was key to understanding the Court's 2003 opinions in Virginia v. Black. We discussed Bible Believers, including a discussion of whether the majority or the dissent had the better of the argument. The assignment for Tuesday 11/17 is to read in the text through p. 263 (Snyder v. Phelps), as well as to read (and try to understand) the Scalia R.A.V. handout.