Case Brief Worksheet

Appendix B: Briefing and Analyzing Cases in Constitutional Law offers a model to brief a court case. FIRAC stands for Facts, Issue, Rule(s), Analyze, and Conclusion. Read about this model and see an example of it in Appendix B. Then, select a United States Supreme Court case on the First Amendment and complete a FIRAC analysis using the worksheet below. For each portion of the FIRAC analysis, include a 200- to 300-word response.

SUPREME COURT case:

FACTS: Lay out the facts of the case.

ISSUE: Identify the legal issue.

RULE: What provision of the First Amendment applies to the issue you have defined?

ANALYZE: Analyze the case, applying the law to the facts of the case.

CONCLUSION: Draw a conclusion.

Hall, D. E. & Feldmeier, J. P. (2012). Constitutional law: Governmental powers and individual freedoms (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.