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Recurring Assignments

Citing Legal Documents

U. S. Supreme Court Decisions 

     General rule: Name of the first plaintiff and the first defendant, the number of the case, the name of the court that decided the case, and the date it was decided. (207). Names of cases and court names are frequently abbreviated.

     The following example refers to the William "Sky" King versus St. Vincent's Hospital case decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in December, 1991.

King v. St. Vincent's Hospital. No. 90-889. Supreme Ct. of the US. 16 December 1991.

     Standard legal format for this case: 502 US 215
     (Volume 502, U. S. Supreme Court Reports, decision starts on page 215.)

[From University of Nebraska website link below:
        http://www.unk.edu/academie cs/library.aspx?id=14245#anchor_courtdec  ]

Case Brief Assignment Guidelines
1.  For each case you choose, you must cite it in correct format.  (There will be a class on this, but until then, refer to the description above.)
2.  For each case - describe what constitutional issue is in question, for instance in Morse v. Frederick, the issue was the right to free speech clause in the first amendment of the Constitution.
3.  Include background information about your case, what happened and how did it end up at the federal, or Supreme Court level?
4. What was the decision of the case?  (Which side won?)
5. Write a summary of the court opinion, for optimal points, include a  quotation of the Justice of record in that opinion.
6. Write a summary of any dissenting opinion.
        Note:  the summaries of the opinions do not have to be of great length, but they do have to adequately encapsulate the reasoning of the court.

Final suggestions:
Put the case name in your paper heading, the example uses the bong hits case.  The case brief heading should look like this:

Super Student                                                September 10, 2010
Morse v. Frederick                                       Mrs. Warren