Legal Studies Notes

by B.J. on 10/20/2002 02:44:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

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[Edited 11/06/03 to make it more useful to those on the web. If this site ain't good enough for you, there's: nolo.com, lawlinks, alllaw, findlaw.com, the legal information institute,]

Random Legal Studies

The elements of a Case Brief:

1) Name and Citation of a case with year.

2) History (How case has traveled through courts)

3) Issues - Main question answered

4) Facts - Evidence relevant to court's reasoning and decision

5) Laws - Laws relied upon (statues, case law, articles/ammendments from the Constitution)

6) Analysis or reasoning - How did the court analyze the facts in light of the legal question (issues).

7) Conclusion - How did the court resolve the dispute.

Elements of a Legal Memorandum:

1) Compares facts and issues of client with those found in reported cases

2) Analyzes statutory law [that is the stuff written in the constitutions and shit] appropriate to case [cause interpretation of law is what determines civil cases]

3) Components:

- Issue statement - Compile Facts

- Request Research

- Discussion section - Explains everything you've been researching.

- Conclusion - Summary and Answer to Research

Cases: Katzenbach v. McClung (1964 - Civil Rights era)

Keywords and phrases: Civil Rights (1964), National not State, Interstate Commerce)

Ollie's BBQ discriminated against blacks even though about 2/3rds of the workers are black. The attorney general, Katzenbach, sued this establishment under the basis of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but that was a national law, not state law. So as long as Ollie's didn't do anything interstate, they were cool. But, and a big one, research (like one requested in a legal memorandum) found that the restauraunt purchased a good 46% of their food out of state. So they did stuff across states and made them subject to national law.


Cases: Texas v. Johnson (1989 - Reagan/Bush era)

Keywords and phrases: Flag-flaming (always a die-hard Liberal) like Mitch's beanie hat, 1st Ammendment

What a coincidence ! Johnson burned flags to protest against Reagan and corporations. Johnson was the only one to be convicted of a crime amongst the 100 demonstrators. But, Texas is retarted and stupid, and eventually lost because Johnson had the 1st ammendment backing him and he didn't harm anyone.

Cases: Blanton v. North Las Vegas (1989 - drinking) and Tracy V. Municipal Court (1978 - Chemicals)

Keywords: Petty misdemeanors, Blanton sounds like a drinker name, Tracy McGrady-high

Blanton = Do DUI people have right to lawyer if the max offense is $1000, 6 months in joint ? No !

Tracy = Do people on dope have the right to a lawyer if the max offense is $100 ? Yes !

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