Law School Class Part III

To all,

I will be continuing the law school classes I have been conducting on RATS right here on skunkworks. (Provided the moderators do not switch the thread to another forum.) I plan on scheduling the class for Wednesday May 19 at 5:00 Pacific/ 8:00 Eastern.

The class will discuss the following four Supreme court cases that discuss the Commerce clause.

US v. Darby

Katzenbach v. McClung

US v. Lopez

Gonzales v. Raich

This week's class will touch on the Darby case and may begin to treat the Gonzales case. It would be nice to skim over these cases if you wish to follow along. It is highly recommended that you read the McClung and Lopes cases because the class will intensely focus on these two cases.

Anybody who wished to actively participate should please U2U me. This class will be taught using the Socratic method that many law school classes use. This means that as the teacher, I will not be spoon feeding you information concerning the cases It will be up to the active participants to answer questions about the cases. Anybody who wishes to actively participate should carefully read the Katzenbach and McClung cases.

Just curious, how do classes on a forum work? Explain to me and I will tell you if I am interested.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


You can see how the classes worked on RATS.

The ground rules of the forum are when class is "in session" only the teacher (me) and the active participants are allowed to post. This minimizes the clutter on the board. I will ask the active participant(s) a question, they will post their answer to the question, I will ask another question and so on and so forth. A reader of the thread will be able to see a dialogue about the cases discussed.

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint

So it works like Socratic questioning? You ask a question, criticize the answers and receive another question?

reply to post by Bildeberg


Somewhat. The goal of Socratic teaching is not to criticize the answers, but to get the student to properly analyze the case. It also gets the student to learn what the case stands for, and what it does not stand for.

Just a reminder to all, I will be conducting a class tonight at 5:00 Pacific/8:00 eastern. U2U me if you want to actively participate.

HI all, Class is now in session. I have not heard from anybody who wants to participate. So check in if you wish to participate and I will begin class. If I do not hear from anybody in the next few minutes, I will cancel class.

I waited about half an hour and nobody is interested in playing along.

Please U2U me if you are interested in the whole law school class thing and I will maybe pick this lesson up or move to a different topic some later date.

[edit on 19-5-2010 by hotpinkurinalmint]

I am interested in the class but I think you would have more success if you don't have a specific class time. Not everyone can be on at a specific time. So maybe you can start the class and let people participate in their own time.