It is useful to condense judicial opinions into case brief format. The Keelercase brief is shown in Figure 1.7.
Read this case at the following
link: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2140632244672927312&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
Published judicial opinions are written by judges and can be lengthy. They can also contain more than one case law, depending on the number of issues addressed. Case briefs reduce a judicial
opinion to its essentials and can be instrumental in understanding the most important aspects of the case. Standard case brief formats can differ, but one format that attorneys and paralegals
commonly use is explained in the following paragraph.
Review the Keeler case brief. The case brief should begin with the title of the case, including the
citation. The next component of the case brief should be the procedural facts. The procedural facts should include two pieces of
information: who is appealing and
which court the case is in. As you can see from the Keeler case brief,
Keeler brought an application for a writ of prohibition, and the court is the California Supreme Court. Following the procedural facts are the substantive facts, which should be a short
description of the facts that instigated the court trial and appeal. The procedural and substantive facts are followed by the issue. The issue is the question the court is examining, which is
usually the grounds for appeal. The case brief should phrase the issue as a question.
Cases usually have more than one issue. The case brief can state all the issues or only the issue that is most important. The substantive holding comes after the issue, is actually the case law, and answers the issue question. If more than one issue is presented in the case brief, a substantive holding should address each issue.
Marburyv. Madison,5 U.S.(1Cranch)137 (1803), http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/5/137
A procedural holding should follow the substantive holding. The procedural holding discusses what the court did procedurally with the case. This could include reversing the low er court’s ruling, affirming the lower court’s ruling, or adjustinga sentenceissued by the lower court. This book discusses court procedure in detail in The Legal System in the United States. Last, but still vital to the case brief, is the rationale. The rationale discusses the reasoningof the judges when ruling on the case. Rationales can setpolicy, which is not technically case law but can still be used as precedent in certain instances.
One judge writes the judicial opinion. Judges vote how to rule, and not all cases are supported by a unanimous ruling. Occasionally, other judges will want to add to the judicial opinion. If a judge agrees with the judicial opinion, the judge could write a concurring opinion, which explains why the judge agrees. If a judge disagrees with the judicial opinion, the judge could write a dissenting opinion explaining why the judge disagrees. The dissenting opinion will not change the judicial opinion, but it may also be used as precedent in a future case if there are grounds for changing the law.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The three sources of law are constitutional, statutory, and case law.
- The sources of law are ranked as follows: first, constitutional; second, statutory; and third, case law. Although it is technically ranked the lowest, judicial review makes case law an extremely powerful source of law.
- The purpose of the US and state constitutions is to regulate government action.
- One purpose of statutory law is to regulate individual or private action.
- The purpose of case law is t o supplement the law when there is no statute on point and also to interpret statutes and the constitution(s).
- The court’s power to invalidate statutes as unconstitutional is called judicial review.
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The components of a case brief are the following:
- The title, plus citation. The citation indicates where to find the case.
- The procedural facts of the case. The procedural facts discuss who is appealing and in which court the case is located.
- The substantive facts. The substantive facts discuss what happened to instigate the case.
- The issue. The issue is the question the court is examining.
- The substantive holding. The substantive holding answers the issue question and is the case law.
- The procedural holding. The procedural holding discusses what the court did procedurally with the case.
- The rationale. The rationale is the reason the court h eld the way it did.
EXERCISES
Answer the following questions. Check your answers using the answer key at the end of the chapter.
- Hal invents a new drug that creates a state of euphoria when ingested. Can Hal be criminally prosecuted for ingesting his new drug?
- Read Shawv. Murphy, 532 U.S. 223 (2001). Did the US Supreme Court allow prison inmates the First Amendment right to give other inmates legal advice? Why or why not? The case is available at this link: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9536800826824133166&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
- Read Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion in Lawrencev.Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). What is the primaryreason Justice Scalia dissented to the US Supreme Court’s opinion in Lawrence? The dissenting opinion is available at this link:http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZD.html. The judicial opinion inLawrencev. Texasis available at this link:http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html.
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