April 19, 2018

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Thursday 4/19, we first went through Hubbard v. Greeson, exploring the concept of common law choice of law rules, and then seeing how the Indiana Supreme Court changed their long-standing Indiana choice of law rule. We then saw how the new rule from Hubbard got applied by the federal courts in Land v. Yamaha. We talked about the Indiana Statute of Repose that barred any action against Yamaha, and contrasted that with the standard Statute of Limitations. We also talked about the two bases for federal court subject-matter jurisdiction, federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction. I also introduced the concept of personal jurisdiction, which we will get to later next week.
The assignment for Tuesday 4/24 is to read in the text pp. 115-119 (Full Faith and Credit, Finstuen v.Crutcher, and pp. 123-129 (subject-matter jurisdiction and Cheap Escape v. Haddox).


POS 484 CRIMINAL DUE PROCESS
In class today, Thursday 4/19, I collected the assignments. I plan to grade them this weekend, and to return them on Tuesday. We spent most of the class period going over the assignment. Along the way, we also went over the status of authority between the state court system and the federal courts (whether a federal court op appeals has mandatory authority over a state supreme court). In addition to assignment questions, we also discussed the separate issue of voluntariness.
The assignment for Tuesday 4/24 is to read in the text pp.536-545, including Powell v. Alabama and Gideon v. Wainwright.