Analyzing a Supreme Court Decision

 The Supreme Court is an incredibly powerful governmental body, as they have the ability to change the Constitution on a daily basis. Each term many cases are decided that have major business impacts. It is important that you are able to read and understand a Supreme Court case due to the potential lasting impact on our lives each one decision brings. Think about the Obergefell case in recent memory that established the national right to same sex marriage. Though this case won’t have the impact of Obergefell, it is from this most recent term (with published ‘final’ opinions) and will tie into the Fourth Amendment discussion in Chapter 4. The case is titled Carpenter v. United States. 

Read the case material and answer the following questions. This assignment is worth 70 total points and the value of each question will be stated following the question. 

1. Who wrote the majority opinion? (3)

2. What was the background of the case, including the results at the lower courts? (15)

3. What essential legal issue was the US Supreme Court addressing? (7)

4. What did the US Supreme Court ultimately decide and do with the case? (15)

5. What was the basis/reasoning for the US Supreme Court’s decision? (10)

6. What is the Miller case about according to the Dissent (Use this court’s opinion to learn about Miller – do not separately Google the Miller case)? (10)

7. What other opinions were written about in the Carpenter Supreme Court Opinion, and who wrote about them? (I don’t need to know what they actually wrote about.) (10)