Impact of supreme court opinions

Legal Research for Public Administration

First Assignment

What you want to develop an understanding regarding from these readings is that Supreme Court

opinions matter down the line—meaning that they influence lowerl court (both federal and state)

rulings and they affect how state and local governments look at what they think they can and cannot do.

In this assignment you are reading about two recent United States Supreme Court cases (District of

Columbia v Heller and McDonald v Chicago). How the Second Amendment was interpreted by the

Supreme Court in these two cases, again, will have an impact on how we speculate what might happen

to public policy making.

Please notice the use of the word “interpret” in the sentence above. I think it is often difficult for

many to understand that if they read the United States Constitution, they are reading very vague words

that do not really mean a great deal without reference to specific Supreme Court cases that give

substance to those vague words.

This is a course where you want to understand how to look at court decisions and how they, exactly,

will have an impact on public policy issues. Try to understand how to look at the relationship between

Supreme Court opinions and what happens at lower government levels. While you are reading about

gun regulation issues here, the same can be examined regarding zoning, or land use, or regulation of

“adult” establishments, or a whole range of issues.

GUIDELINES FOR THS ASSIGNMENT

1) Your essay will be a minimum of six pages (typed, double spaced)

2) Do get to some specifics. You should discuss specifics that you get out of these readings. How

do different readings look at what has happened or might happen in the aftermath of the two

Supreme Court cases? How do you understand these court cases affecting public

administration?

SOME BASICS TO BEAR IN MIND

1) You will see use of the words “Enumerated” and “Unenumerated.” Enumerated means spelled

out. For example the First Amendment in the US Constitution refers to Freedom of Speech.

Unenumerated refers to implied or not spelled out. For example, Court cases have addressed

privacy rights, but the word privacy is not in the Constitution.

2) You will see reference to “incorporation.” What this refers to is that the 14th Amendment in the

US Constitution which starts with the words “No state shall.” In order for something in the Bill

of Rights (the first ten amendments in the US Constitution) to be paid attention to by state and

local governments, then something in the Bill of Rights needs to be linked or connected to the

14th Amendment. You will notice in some readings that there is discussion about

“incorporating” the Second Amendment into the 14th Amendment. When that happens then

state and local governments start to pay attention and try to determine how this court action

will affect state and local government policies.

3) When the US Supreme Court issues an opinion, what that refers to is an opinion written by a

majority (minimum five) of the Supreme Court justices. There are also concurrent opinions-that

means a justice who was in the majority wrote their own opinion. In this case they agreed with

the majority but while they agreed with the conclusion, they differed regarding how to get

there. Finally, there are dissenting opinions (these are written by justices in the minority).

Notice, that what is important is to actually read what precisely was said—particularly the

opinion issued by the majority which is referred to as the Opinion of the Court.

Paper shoul be based on the readings USE SUBHEADINGS WITHIN YOUR PAPER.  Also think in terms of your conclusion as a well-developed opinion so you

may want this to be a page or more.

Think in terms of your conclusion as more than just some basic closing remarks but a well-developed thought-out commentary on the topic at hand.