December 8, 2015

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 12/8, I distributed one handout, an excerpt from Maine statutes regarding jurisdiction and venue. We first decided that the final exam on Thursday 12/17 would start at 10:00, rather than the 9:30 start time in the University's official schedule (and the exam will go from 10:00 until 11:15).
After the class did evaluations, I went over some aspects of the Walden case brief, including reiterating the format that I'm looking for, and explaining what a Bivens action is. We then went through the Cheap Escape case, and put the case in the format of a case brief. I then talked about two cases which reached opposite conclusions regarding the correct definition of subject-matter jurisdiction, Landmark Realty v. Leasure (from the Maine Supreme Court) and Bowles v. Russell (from the U.S. Supreme Court). We began looking at the Maine jurisdiction statutes, and will pick up with the District Court jurisdiction, and venue, on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 12/10 is to finish work on your Walden case brief (due at the beginning of class), review today's handout, and read in the text from 136-140 (St. James Apartments).


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Tuesday 12/8, I clarified that the final exam will be Thursday 12/17 from 12:15 until 1:30 (75 minutes instead of 2 hours). After the class did evaluations, we picked back up with the WWH v. Cole abortion case. We started with the question of the non-grandfathering of the ASC standards. We discussed fundamental rights, strict scrutiny, and the undue burden standard. We talked about the conflicting positions regarding whether the Court could second-guess (as opposed to accept at face value) the Texas legislature's asserted interest in maternal health. We looked at the precedents marshalled by each side of that question. We then shifted from purpose to effect, and looked at the evidence both of the scope of the decline in abortion facilities, and the reason shown for that decline. We talked a little bit about which side had the better arguments, as well as the better chance for success. We talked about the process of getting 4 votes to grant cert. We started discussing the decision by the Supreme Court this week to deny cert in a case that upheld a ban on assault-style weapons, and we'll talk about voting to deny cert as a tactic when we go over the Second Amendment on Thursday. The assignment for Thursday 12/10 is to read in the text pp.390-395 (Heller).