November 28, 2017

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 11/28, I distributed three handouts: Assignment #2 (reproduced below), the case you'll be briefing, V.L. v. E.L, and an excerpt from the Obergefell case. We first went over the requirements of the assignment. Then we went through the two textbook cases assigned for today, Hubbard and Land, and talked about the concept of conflict of laws, and good and bad lawyering. I also went over the concept that sunk the Lands, statutes of repose, versus statutes of limitation.
The assignment for Thursday 11/30 is to begin work on your case brief, and to read the Obergefell handout, and to read in the text through the end of Chapter III (Finstuen).

Assignment due at the beginning of class on Thursday, December 7, 2017

The assignment (graded) is to do a Case Brief of the case of V.L. v. E.L., 136 S. Ct. 1017 (2016) (also distributed to the class today).

Remember that the purpose of the brief is to be useful. Check your holdings to make sure that they give the most useful rules possible. Mere conclusory facts just tell us who won and who lost, but not what circumstances determine the winner and loser.

Follow the format from the Sample Briefs that I’ve distributed, including this: after giving the winner’s facts, give the loser’s facts with a parenthetical phrase that starts “(even though...)”.

Note especially that, after the “Issue” is composed, the “Facts” and “Holding” are copied and pasted. Everything that you put into the Fact section should appear exactly in your Issue and Holding sections as well. Your Issue and Holding sections should be identical to each other, except that the issue is a question, and the Holding is the answer to that question. Your briefs will be evaluated on the format, as well as the specific content.

Please make two copies of your brief, 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 brief. 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 Thursday 12/7, you should still e-mail me your brief by the beginning of class time. If you do that, you will not have any grade deducted from your grade for the brief. 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.

Remember to work by yourselves; do not collaborate. Do not show your work to anyone else; do not look at anyone else’s work. Do not discuss your case brief with anyone but me.
Do no outside research. Do not troll the internet. The opinion itself is your only source for the case brief.

IMPORTANT: If you e-mail your brief 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.



POS 383 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
In class today, Tuesday 11/28, I handed back the PHH outlines. I distributed two handouts, my version of the PHH outline, and a page that had a key to my notes on your outlines as well the a selection of the statutes involved in the current struggle about the new head of the CFPB.
We talked about the CFPB struggle, and then discussed one of the two cases assigned for today, Zivotofsky. We will begin with the second case, Hamdi, on Thursday.
The assignment for Thursday 11/30 is to read in the text pp.125-139, including Powell v. McCormack, and Thorton.