S‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍tructure/ Required Parts of a Court Case Brief for this Cou

S‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍tructure/ Required Parts of a Court Case Brief for this Course (**NOTE** – Your PAPER for this course is a COURT CASE BRIEF) 1. Facts — The important, “story” facts of what happened in the case. Do not include facts that are not important for the determination of the legal case. 2. Procedural history — The litigation facts of what happened at the lower court levels before the case got to the court case you are reading/ briefing (examples could include that the defendant was convicted at the trial court, his conviction was affirmed by an appellate court and now the case is at the U.S. Supreme Court because this Court granted the defendant’s petition or writ of certiorari). 3. Issue — The question the court is trying to answer/ address. Note that the issue is an actual question. An example of an Issue could be — Whether under the Fourth Amendment police violated defendant’s right against an unreasonable search and seizure when they entered her home without a search warrant but with knowledge from a known informant who had provided police with credible information in the past, that defendant and her husband were using the home to traffic drugs (., as a “stash” house) ? Notice how the example of an Issue above includes reference to the law — the Fourth Amendment — and the facts (., police entered D’s home without a warrant but with certain, specific information from a certain type of informant). It is important to include reference to BOTH the law and the specific, key facts in the Issue question. 4. Holding/ Rule – The answer to the legal issue (#3 above). It is important to start the Holding with a specific “Yes” or “No” answer to the legal issue/ question. An example based on the Issue question in #3 above is — “Yes, police violated defendant’s Fourth Amendment right against an unreasonable search and seizure when they entered her home without a search warrant because absent some emergency or consent, police need to first obtain a search warrant prior to entering and searching defendant’s home (Payton rule). Although the facts police learned from the informant may have provided officers the probable cause they needed to obtain a search warrant from a judge, here there was no warrant, no information about an emergency occurring in the home , and no attempt to obtain defendant’s or another authorized person’s valid consent to search the home. Judgement reversed.” 5. Rationale — The Court’s explanation or reasons for its Holding (#4 above). The Rationale is NOT your opinion of the case but rather the Court’s reasons for why it reached the Holding/ Ruling that it did. An example based on the Issue and Holding we have been using in this exercise is — “The Court principally held that Defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated because her property rights and privacy were intruded upon by police. Earlier cases such as Katz and Jones established that a police search occurs under the Fourth Amendment when police trespass on defendant’s property (Jones) or violate defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy (Katz). In this case, police clearly trespassed on defendant’s property and hence there was a search under the Fourth Amendment. But the search of the home by police could be reasonable if police had obtained a warrant to search the home, had obtained valid, voluntary consent to search from an authorized person, or had probable cause that an emergency was occurring in the home (see the Payton rule). Here, police failed to obtain a warrant and never attempted to seek consent from defendant or another authorized person to search the home. Finally, police did not have probable cause as to an emergency in the home because there were no facts that would establish such an emergency (for example, probable cause that someone was being hurt inside the home, or that illegal evidence was being destroyed inside the home, or that someone was attempting to escape from the home). As a result, the police search of the home was unreasonable in this case, and violated the Fourth Amendment.” 6. Your opinion — Your opinion of the case (., your opinion of the case’s holding and/ or rationale). Your opinion may be formed by explaining whether you agree more with the majority opinion compared to a dissenting or concurring opinion in the case (note: some cases do not have dissents or concurring opinions, but many cases do have these). 7. The judicial philosophy of‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ the judge who wrote the majority opinion for your case – Note that this is referring to the judge’s OVERALL philosophy or style of constitutional/ legal interpretation. You will need to consult at least one outside SOURCE, which you will also cite in your paper, to be able to learn about the judge’s overall decision-making approach/ philosophy / style. But since your case is most likely a United States Supreme Court case (or another appellate court case), there should be PLENTY of biographical – related information about your judge . An example might be a journal article or newspaper story about how the judge who wrote your court case decision is a CRIME CONTROL/ pro-police judge , or a DUE PROCESS/ pro-defendant judge, or is an “originalist”/ “textualist” judge (the latter is someone who interprets the Constitution strictly by following the words of the text of the Constitution and who focuses less on outside, external factors such changes in technology, social beliefs, the economy, etc.). 8. Social factors or influences that may have impacted your court case – Note that this is referring to any mentioned or possible factors that are NOT the law that may have influenced or impacted the judges in deciding your case. These factors may be — social, political, economic, historical, technological, psychological, moral/ ethical, etc. You will need to consult at least one outside SOURCE, which you will also cite in your paper, regarding these “impact” or “influencing” factor(s). Sometime the judges in your case will actually mention how certain factors or changes in technology and/ or in social beliefs, etc. have influenced their legal ruling and decision. However, in many cases judges may NOT mention these factors explicitly in their decision. Therefore, you will have to consider the YEAR/ time-frame during which your case was decided. Two examples may be — (1) Your case was decided in the 1960s or 1970s during the court period sometimes referred to as the “due process revolution”, which corresponded to social movements in the United States such as the civil rights movements or women’s movement, etc. If your decision is pro- defendant/ pro-rights (pro-due process), it may be that the judge’s decision in your case was impacted or at least influenced by these social movements. You may then briefly discuss in your paper how in the 1960s/ 1970s there were various social movements in the United States and courts were going through a due process period, etc. in response to these movements. You should cite and discuss a source for this (., a source that talks about the due process period/ revolution by the courts and/ or the social movements, etc.) (2) Your case was decided in the 1980s/ 1990s/ or 2000s during a court period that can be referred to in general as more “crime control”, which corresponded to the War on Drugs (1980s and onward) or War on Terror (2001 and onward). If your decision is more pro-police/ pro-law enforcement (., judicial approval of police seizing drugs or stopping a potential terrorist, etc.) , it may be that the judge’s decision in your case was impacted or influenced by these social movements (., the War on Drugs or War on Terror). You may then briefly discuss in your paper how in the 1980s/ 1990s/ 2000s there were various social movements in the United States (for example, War on Drugs in the 1980s/ 90s) and courts were going through a crime control period, etc. in response to these movements. You should cite and discuss a source for this (., a source that talks about the crime control, pro-law enforcement period in the courts and/ or the social movements, etc Here are the directions for finding your actual case using the Westlaw database at the KSU library website ( —- At this website, click on “Find a Database” and then go to / select the letter “W”. Scroll down to the “WestLaw Campus Research” database and select it. Enter your KSU NetId and password to access the database (note: this should be the same Id and Password you use to access your university email). Once inside the database, you should see a larger search “box” at the top of the screen. The box says “Enter … Citations” on it . In the box, enter/ type-in your court case citation. You should just type in the part of your case / case citation containing the numbers and reporter / book abbreviation (., . or S. Ct.‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍). A fictitious example would be: 100 . 200 Another example would be: 100 S. Ct. 200