Nahmod Law

Scotus Review: The 2009 Term

On October 29, 2010, my colleague, Professor Christopher Schmidt, and I presented a review of the Supreme Court‘s important decisions from its 2009 Term (through June, 2010).

Our presentations took place at Chicago-Kent and were sponsored by the Kent chapters of the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society. Kent’s Institute for Law and the Humanities, of which I am a co-director, also sponsored.

The two presentations, 30 minutes each, were followed by 15 minutes of questions and discussion.

Cases Covered

Professor Schmidt spoke first about U.S. v. Comstock (Necessary and Proper Clause); McDonald v. City of Chicago (Second Amendment and incorporation); and Citizens United v. FEC (corporate campaign expenditures and the First Amendment).

I spoke next about the following First Amendment free speech and religion cases: Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (speech and material support for terrorists); U.S. v. Stevens (animal cruelty videos, the subject of my more extensive video presentation at the Chicago Bar Association, as noted in a previous post);  Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (college religious student group recognition and forum analysis); and  Salazar v. Buono (cross as war memorial and its sale by government).

These presentations are accessible through the following link:

video link (Requires Real Player)

Real Player is free – download it here for PCs or here for Macs