Department of Politics

"BRIEFING" SUPREME COURT CASES

Purpose: This assignment is designed to give you a greater familiarity with specified cases than can be achieved by reading the abbreviated version in a casebook. It is also designed to enhance your familiarity with the documentary record of the court, improve your critical reading skills, and introduce you to a technique for reading and understanding court cases upon which law students and lawyers depend heavily. For further information see Melone, Researching Constitutional Law (at the Reference Desk in Cole Library).

The Brief: Most of the material for American Constitutional law consists of judicial opinions. Reading them intelligently is more art than science. In order to make the critical information more accessible, law students and others who read such opinions regularly will generally evolve some standard format for their notes on a case--these notes are the "brief." You are encouraged to "brief" all the cases we study. There are two ways in which you will be formally encouraged to develop your briefing technique: (1) Use of personal notes will be permitted on quizzes and exams. (2) In the course of the term you will be required to submit two special briefs which will be graded. While you may use any format which pleases you for your personal notes, the graded briefs must adhere--with the exceptions noted below--to the format set forth in Appendix 8 of Constitutional Law for a Changing America.

Exception No. 1: Element #1 (Case Name). In addition to the case name, you are to provide a citation to the U.S. Reports with inclusive page numbers, e.g.: Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649-683 (1944).

Exception No. 2: Quotations. Your brief should incorporate short quotations whenever you believe the precise words of an opinion or a statute are of particular importance. All such quotations should be documented by providing the page number from the United States Reports in parentheses following the quotation.

Assignment:

1. Select two of the primary cases for this course. Primary cases are those listed by name the casebook's table of contents or linked by name on the Calendar & Assignments page of the course syllabus. Limit your case selection to cases decided by the United States Supreme Court, and select at least one case that exceeds 29 pages in the U.S. Reports.
2. Read each case in the original and prepare a brief according to the format above.
3. Submit your briefs as e-mail attachments. Attachments should be single-spaced and contain not more than 900 carefully chosen words.
4. The first brief is due no later than the 8th day of the term. The second is due no later than the 15th day. Earlier submissions are encouraged. Indeed, the ideal plan is to impress your instructor twice by selecting a case and preparing your brief in time to make a particularly expert contribution to the discussion in the class for which the case was assigned.