Any student who takes Political Science Classes in College or Law related classes, or even is planning on going to law school, sooner or later you will have to learn how to write a legal brief. Legal briefs are very helpful and useful because professors will ask you summarize a Supreme Court case and give the facts and decisions of the case. You must organize this data into a brief and have a file full of briefs to keep track of the enormous amounts of Supreme Court cases in their long history.
The following is the proper format and heading to write a professional legal brief:
please also note that the following, while was a real case in U.S. history, is not the exact or correct details of case. It is merely examples of the format and possible answers to the format of the legal brief.
Name: Joe Smith
date: March 1, 2006
Case Name: Texas v. Johnson
Case #: 268 U.S. document #: 652 (year: 1925).
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Facts of Case: a man burned a U.S. flag in protest of U.S. government decision. Was arrested on charges. decision appealed by 5th circuit court.
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Questions: is right to freedom of speech and expression applicable in this case. Do action = speech. Are rights protected by Constitution?
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Majority Decision: Court ruled in favor of Johnson that flag brning was legal and man was not convicted of crime
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Majority Reasoning: Court ruled that actions= speech and constitution protects freedom of speech and therefore protects actions. Actions are symbolic Speech. While we may not like burning of American flag, Johnson’s rights must be protected.
(skip space)
Concurring Reasoning: (Any other reason for same decision but different reasoning)
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Dissenting Reasoning: In S.C. head justice William Rehinquist dissent, he stated that burning of flag goes against American values and loyalty to the nation. It is act of treason and must be punished.
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Vote: Court ruled in 7-1 decision. Justice Bryer, Stevens, Conners, Thomas, Scalia majority decision.
Rehinquist dissent.
(skip space)
Legal Principle: Use of 1st Amendment protecting freedom of speech was appliable in decision.
Writing a legal brief is a great way to summarize Supreme Court cases. In furter explanation of the format of the brief:
The Facts of the case is the fact pattern in the case and what events occurred. What actions did the person caused they were thought to break the law. Is law constitutional?
The Questions section lists any questions the court might have about consitutional rights that need to be answered in the case for the court to reach their final decision.
The Majority Decision Answers any the questions in the previous section
Majority Reasoning is the reason the court reached their decision and summarize the positon the judges took in the case
Concurring Reasoning: In most cases but not all a judge might write a concurring opinion in which they voted in the majority decision but had a different reason than the other judges for voting in the majority.
Dissenting Reasoning is the reason why a judge voting against the other judges in the case and thought the other judges to be wrong in their analysis of the case. Dissenting opinions are often used to go back and revist a past case to try and get a decision over turned like in Roe v. Wade
The Vote is the final vote of the judges. The Supreme Court is made up of 9 judges so the final tally should equal 9 judges. However at times there may be a vacancy that needs to be filled on the court or a judge may abstain from voting.
The Legal Principle was the law the judges used from the Consitution or Bill of Rights that was applicable to the case such as the 1st amendment
