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1.  Assigned Reading.  The casebook for this course is WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, PHILIP P. FRICKEY & ELIZABETH GARRETT, CASES AND MATERIALS ON LEGISLATION: STATUTES AND THE CREATION OF PUBLIC POLICY - 3^rd edition (West 2001).

2.  Attendance, Participation.  

• General rule: Conscientious class attendance and participation are expected and may be a plus-factor in final grades for the course.  In the event of excessive absences or unprepareds, I may lower a grade or drop a student from the course.  
• "Excessive absence" defined: You may have five absences without explanation or excuse (the first class counts, even if you were not then registered for the course).  After that, the only excuses that count are your extreme illness and a death in the immediate family.  If you know that you will miss classes because of a law review symposium, moot court competition, friend's out-of-town wedding, your own wedding, or the like, plan ahead and save a "free" absence for these events; they do not count as excuses once you have maxed out.

3.  Final Exam.  The final examination will be a three-hour, open-book exam.  You may bring into the exam room your casebook (and supplement), all class handouts, and your own class notes and course outline; no other materials may be consulted during the examination.  For purposes of this rule, outlines prepared jointly with other members of this class are "your own."

4.  Legal Research.  Researching legislation is a sometimes monumental and often frustrating exercise.  Knowing how, however, is more than half the battle.  Toward that end, the course includes two research problems designed to familiarize you with basic legislative research, with a special emphasis on materials available through the World Wide Web.  All answers will be due by midnight on the advertised due-date and shall be submitted to the entire class through the class listserv (about which see below).  Research problems will be graded Pass-Fail, and I will require follow-up work on any answer-set that is not satisfactory until you have it right.  "Pass" therefore means "perfect," and the only ways to fail a research problem are (i) to not turn it in and (ii) to not tweak it (if needed) to my satisfaction.  Your composite grade on the research problems will count the same as an exam question toward your final grade.

5.  E-mail & Listserv.  Everyone enrolled in the class is required to have an e-mail account and to sign onto the listserved discussion list established for this class before the end of Add/Drop (i.e., Thursday, January 17).  E-mail accounts may be either commercial ones or obtained for no charge at Bradfield Computing Center on campus.  Once you have obtained an account, please subscribe to the legislation-mayo discussion list for this class by following the directions on the Law School's Listserv page at http://www.law.smu.edu/techweb/listserv.htm.  Computers suitably equipped for this purpose may be found in Underwood Law Library, and Bradfield or the Law Library will give you software to convert your home computer into an e-mail terminal, as well.  We will use the listserv for the following purposes:

• distribution of your answers to the required research problems;
• discussion list for Q&As throughout the semester and during the exam-review period; and 
• communication of important class-related information.

6.  Class Cancellations.  There will be no class on Friday, February 22.  As a result, we will need to schedule one makeup class sometime during the semester in order to meet the requisite 42 times.  We will schedule this makeup soon after Add/Drop.  

7.  Cell Phones, Pagers.  Please respect your classmates by turning off your cell phones and pagers before class.  If you must leave them on, please switch to the vibrate mode.  If you leave class to return a page or to take a cell call, please do not disrupt the class a second time by returning the room before the end of the hour.

8.  Office Hours.  My office is Room 303, Storey Hall.  Office hours will be from 2:00-4:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Please try to nail down an appointment time in advance by signing up on the appointment sheet posted on my door.  If the posted and available times are not convenient, I will meet with you at a time that is convenient; just check with me before or after class to set up an appointment, or  I can be reached at 214.768.3767 or by e-mail.