April 12, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Wednesday 4/12, we continued going through the Chapter 3 question of how to tell what the law really is. We talked about the due process challenge to the individual mandate in the Massachusetts health care law that preceded the ACA, and the difference between the enumerated powers of Congress versus the police power of state legislatures. We talked then about the limits on those state powers, and I discussed the preemption case of Rowe v. N.H. Transport Assoc. We discussed ex post fact laws and sex offender registries, and the "punishment" aspect of the current U.S. Supreme Court case of Packingham v. N.C. We then discussed the Butler case and dictum. I went over the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case of Harris v. N.Y., in which the Court basically agreed with the Butler court. I went through the votes in the Harris case, and we talked about how a change in the personnel of the Court can change the meaning of the constitution. We talked about three different kinds of dictum that we've seen: beyond the facts presented, even if, and more than one way to get to a result.
The assignment for Friday 4/14 is to read in the text through p. 113 (Dempsey and Strunk). Also on Friday, I plan to distribute our second graded case brief assignment.


POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Wednesday 4/12, we finished going over the dissenting opinions in Casey. We looked at the cases in the remainder of Chapter 10 that we're not covering, and we talked about the religion case coming in the Supreme Court next week, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. We started going through the textbook discussion of religion, starting with the definition of "religion". We then talked about free exercise in relation to the Mormon challenge to the federal anti-polygamy statute, which is where we'll pick up on Friday.
The assignment for Friday 4/14 is to review through Cantwell (previously assigned) and to read in addition through p. 110 (Sherbert v. Verner).