Chapter Four: Case Law and Judicial Opinions

Chapter Theme

Chapter Four introduces students to case law. Students will learn that not all cases are published and that the cases that are published share certain features. You may wish to show how these elements appear in the case reports by showing an old advance sheet to the students or by reviewing the case reproduced in Chapter Four of the text. Reviewing actual published cases is especially helpful to show how to locate pertinent portions of cases using headnotes.

Students often have a bit of difficulty understanding the designation of cases as “official” and “unofficial,” and explaining this may require a comparison of a case in an official set with its publication by West in a regional reporter.

After the publication of state cases is discussed and students are familiar with the framework and units of West’s National Reporter System, the publication of federal cases is discussed.

Star paging is explained so students will know how to convert citations and page references in Supreme Court Reporter and Lawyers’ Edition to citations to the United States Reports, to comply with Bluebook citation rules. Note: This is also helpful because star paging is used on Lexis Advance) and Westlaw screens to show readers when page breaks occur.

Students are introduced to the features included in West’s sets of books so they may readily use the Table of Cases or list of judges covered by the courts in that volume.

Finally, once students are thoroughly familiar with how and where cases are published and the elements of reported decisions, case briefing is explained.

Classroom Discussion Approach

Ask students why or when a dissent or concurring opinion may be issued. You may consider discussing the current trend of U.S. Supreme Court justices to issue more concurring opinions than in previous years and ask what reasons students can think of why this has occurred. The “fractured” nature of the United States Supreme Court opinion in 2000 in Bush v. Gore may provide a good “jumping off” point for this discussion. Similarly, the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and holding Section 4 of the Act unconstitutional, Shelby County v. Holder, available at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf, is useful for showing the numerous “alignments” on the Court. The blog SCOTUSblog (http://www.scotusblog.com) has useful statistics on Supreme Court alignments, dissents, and concurrences. Select “Statistics” or “Stat Pack.”

Discuss the policy reasons underlying Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 and why trial court decisions are rarely published.

Discuss the differing writing styles seen in cases, from the flowery and archaic styles of some writers to the terse and spare approach of others. Ask students if they have any tips to offer on reading and comprehending cases, and stress how the features provided by the publishers (case synopsis/background, headnotes, and so forth) make reading cases somewhat easier.

Discuss the enhanced access of the public to cases now available on the Internet, and discuss the effect of such ready availability on the public’s understanding of our legal system in general and on law book publishing. If cases are available on the Internet, for free, why should law firms spend money to buy a set of case reports?

Assignments

The end-of-chapter assignments for Chapter Four include a library assignment designed to require students to locate and use the features seen in case reports (such as the Table of Words and Phrases, star paging, and so forth) as well as a case brief. The library assignment for this chapter is considerably less demanding than the assignment for statutory research given in Chapter Three because it is designed merely to familiarize students with the elements of cases and the features found in books reporting cases.

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While a citation to a case is included for the case brief (United States v. Jones) ), and a sample brief for the case is included in the Answer Key section of this Manual, feel free to substitute some other case, if desired. The case identified in the text (United States v. Jones)) is relatively short, involves an interesting issue relating to whether installing at GPS device on a car is a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The briefs of this case should enable you to obtain a snapshot of your students’ writing abilities that you have not been able to see from the library assignments previously given. The case may provide an excellent topic for discussion and students are typically enthusiastic about discussing this case in the class after they have read and briefed it.

Tip for Finding Cases to Brief

Remember that if you would like some interesting and quirky cases that you could assign to your students to brief, subscribe to “West’s Headnote of the Day,” at http://blog.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/category/legalresearch/headnote-of-the-day.

Every day you will be emailed a headnote from an interesting, amusing, or profound case. You will be given the full citation to the case.

Suggestion for Oral Presentation: As a break from written assignments, you may wish to break students into two groups, one of which will argue FOR the use and citation of unpublished cases, and the other of which will argue AGAINST the use and citation of unpublished cases. Students may work in groups and make oral presentations in class.

The Internet Assignment questions demonstrate how students may locate court opinions and court statistics on the Internet. The Internet Assignment also includes a question requiring students to access Google’s service “Google Scholar,” which allows easy access to cases and also allows one to determine how many later cases cite the cases one finds.

Discussion of Assignments

Review the library assignment and case brief for Chapter Four. Most students do very well on the library assignment for Chapter Four because it is straightforward. Point out any common errors made by students in the case briefs and consider asking students to discuss some of the policy reasons underlying the United States v. Jones case.

Optional State-Specific Assignments

Ask students to locate a recent case from your state’s judicial website (assuming your jurisdiction posts its cases on a judicial website). Links to state judicial websites are found in Table T.1.3 of The Bluebook and through Washburn University School of Law at http://www.washlaw.edu. Alternatively, use a recent advance sheet from the regional reporter covering your state (for example, use the Pacific Reporter, Third Series for Nevada) and ask students to find a case in that volume by the defendant’s name or to find a case in that volume that interprets a specific statute from your state.

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