April 23, 2019

POS 282 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN LAW
In class today, Tuesday 4/23, I first reminded students to fill out the on-line evaluations for the class. We went through the NFIB v. Sebelius case, discussing dictum, and Roberts' view of text, definitions, precedent, and the federal government's arguments. We also discussed the Ginsburg dissent, and the "joint dissent". We discussed the police power, federal supremacy and the delivery of internet sales of cigarette sales, the 9th and 10th Amendments, and ex post facto laws (regarding sex offender registries). We will pick upon Thursday with the Butler case and dictum.
The assignment for Thursday 4/25 is review what was previously assigned in the text through p.109 (including Butler and Dempsey), and to read in addition through p.113 (including Strunk).



POS 359 THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT TERM
In class today, Tuesday 4/23, I handed back the Rucho papers, and discussed some aspects of the grading of those papers.I reminded students to fill out the on-line evaluations for the class. We then started going through the briefs in the Census case. We matched the argument made in the Commerce brief with the answer made in the N.Y. brief. We got through the "arbitrary and capricious" portion of the Commerce brief, and will pick up on Thursday with Part I(E) of the Commerce brief, whether adding the citizenship question violates the 1976 Census Act. Along the way, I went over the 2016 Supreme Court decision in Evenwel v. Abbott, which held that a state was allowed to use total population as a basis for redistricting, rather than the count of citizens of voting age.
The assignment for Thursday 4/25 is to review the three Commerce v. N.Y. handouts from last week, as well as reading the transcript of today's oral argument in Commerce v. N.Y.