April 7, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Friday 4/7, I finished our discussion of ethics with the current Supreme Court case of Epic Systems v. Lewis. That case asks whether an employer may force an agreement onto its employees in which the employees forgo the right to exercise their federal rights to engage in collective action, through the imposition of a mandatory individual arbitration agreement. We then talked about the history of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the commerce clause. We talked about how mining, unionization, and child labor were all held to be commerce within a state, and therefore not within the interstate commerce power. We talked then about how the Supreme Court in 1937 changed its interpretation, and we went over Wickard v. Filburn. We began the discussion of NFIB v. Sebelius with the first argument by Roberts, that the "creation" of commerce can't be within the power of "regulation" of commerce, because that would leave some other words of the constitution as being mere surplusage. That's the point at which we'll pick up next week.
The assignment for Monday 4/10 is to review all the opinions in NFIB v. Sebelius, previously assigned.



POS 384 CIVIL LIBERTIES
In class today, Friday 4/7, I distributed two handouts: assignment #2 (reproduced below) and the case you'll be outlining, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellersted. We went over the assignment, and reviewed the format for outlines. We then went back into the Casey case. We got through Part III of case, and so we'll pick up on Monday with Part IV (p. 420).
The assignment for Monday 4/10 is to begin work on your Whole Woman's Health outline, and to review the remainder of Casey.

Assignment #2 due Friday April 21, 2017
The assignment is to do an outline of Justice Breyer’s majority opinion in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (also distributed to the class today). I have added paragraph numbers for ease of discussion—they are not part of the opinion.

Follow the format from the Sample Outlines that I’ve distributed. Read over my Comment Key for Reed to remind you of the frequent problems regarding outline format. Note that the basic format is Title (for the Roman numerals and any other elements that have sub-elements below them); and then Question and Answer for the other elements. Do not outline the introductory section of the Opinion (before Roman Numeral I). Starting with I(B), use the same elements that Breyer already has used:
I
(A) OMITTED
(B) [¶1-3]
(C) [¶4-6]

II OMITTED

III [¶7-11]

IV [¶12-22]

V [¶23-38]

If I’ve omitted parts (e.g. “II”), you just omit it as well.

Add sub-elements to the outline as necessary in order to cover the points raised by Breyer. For example, under I(B), you might add sub-elements such as
I
(B) The parties and the Prior Proceedings
[1] Who are the Petitioners and what were they seeking? They are abortion providers who sought injunctions against both the admitting-privileges and surgical center (ASC) provisions, as violating Casey.
[2] What did the District Court find?
[a] It found that if the ASC provision went fully into effect, the remaining abortion facilities could not reasonably be thought to be able to meet for abortion services.
[b] As for the admitting privileges requirement, it found that ...

As you add sub-elements, follow these rules:
•For the element that’s going to be sub-divided, you can give a title or a question, e.g.
I(B)The parties and the prior proceedings
or
I(B)Who were the parties and what were the prior proceedings?

•Put the added sub-element number or letter in brackets (“[ ]”).

Don’t try to label the Roman Numerals until you’ve outlined the other parts; only then can you see what the entire roman numeral section is about.

For Thomas’ dissenting opinion do not outline the opinion, but rather give a few paragraphs summarizing the main points of his opinion.

The assignment will be graded on both the structure and the content of your outline. The outline will also be graded on how well you write English, and how clearly you organize your thoughts. I like short clear sentences better than long complicated ones. I like correct grammar.

Please make two copies of your outline, one to hand in at the beginning of class, and the other for you to have during class for our discussion.

You may e-mail me if you have specific questions about the assignment. The more time that I have to answer your questions, the more likely it is that I can be helpful.

If you cannot be in class on Friday 4/21, you should still e-mail me your assignment by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any deduction from your grade. If you do not, you should still contact me as soon as possible to see what options are available to you. (Generally, I do not want to accept assignments after we have discussed them in class). See the Syllabus for the class rules regarding late papers.

The work should be entirely your own, with no collaboration or plagiarism. Don’t look at other student’s outlines, and don’t show your outline to anyone. See the syllabus regarding plagiarism and collaboration.

If you can’t talk to each other about question, to whom can you talk? Me. E-mail me with the specific questions that you have

IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your assignment to me, I will reply to confirm that I have received your assignment. If I do not reply, then I have not received the assignment.