LAW ASSIGNMENT

How to Brief a Case fin 240.doc

How to Brief a Case

“Briefing” a case is a technique used by law students and others who study court opinion to boil an opinion down to its essential elements. The purpose of having you brief a case is to see how well you understand legal reasoning and the law and how well you can summarize the important elements of a court opinion accurately.

A case brief should, generally, be no more than one typed, single-spaced page, In a case brief, you want to be sure to include these elements:

● The name of the case and its citation at the top (include the LEXIS citations).

● Facts of the case. The first section of the court opinion will discuss the background of

what happened that resulted in the litigation decided by this case. You should summarize that background in two or three sentences.

● Proceedings below. The same section of the court opinion that deals with the facts of

the case also will probably discuss how lower courts decided the case. Summarize in one or two sentences.

● Questions before the court. Shortly after it discusses the facts of the case and the

proceedings below, the court often will discuss what question(s) is/are before it. In other words, the court will state issues upon which the appeal is being brought to it. Often this part will be introduced with a phrase such as “The question before this court is …”

● Holding. How did the court answer that question/those questions? Sometimes this will

be immediately apparent; in other opinions, you will have to read most of the decision to get to the holding. Courts often signal that this is the part you need to pay attention to by saying “We find that …” or “We hold that …” There can be more than one holding.

● Reasoning. This is often the toughest part to figure out. Opinions will sometimes go on

forever about why a case had to be decided a certain way. Ignore the hypothetical arguments and the arguments that they reject and summarize in a couple of sentences why the court says it favored one argument over another.

● Important concurrence (if any). If one or more justices write a concurring opinion

and it seems to say something important (for example, says the majority opinion is limited to just the facts of this case), include a brief summary of that opinion.

● Dissenting opinion(s). Likewise, if there is a dissenting opinion that seems to take an

important departure from the majority, include a summary of it. Don’t bother if the dissent is merely over a procedural matter (“We shouldn’t have taken this case because of Rule 499X,” for example). Court decisions are usually written in fairly plain English, and I have tried to avoid cases that are highly technical (that turn, for example, on whether a particular rule required a 350 megahertz signal or a 500 megahertz signal). However, you may be baffled a bit by some Latin phrases that are interspersed in the opinions. Also, the decisions frequently have what are called “string cites,” where the justice writing the opinion will say “As we’ve said before, “ and then list three, six, or a dozen cases in which the court has said something. For the most part, you can ignore both the Latin and the string cites. If a Latin word or phrase seems important, you can probably find it in a regular dictionary or better yet, in a Law Dictionary. Also, some legal databases provide a link to an online legal dictionary. You can, of course, always ask a class mate for help.

EXAMPLE OF A CASE BRIEF

Here is an example of a briefed case from the U.S. Supreme Court. To see the full case,

use the procedure discussed above.

Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo 418 U.S. 241 (1974); 1974 U.S. LEXIS 86.

Facts of the case: Tornillo brought an action against the Miami Herald, which criticized

his candidacy for the Florida Legislature, under a Florida law that required newspapers to print replies from candidates opposed by the newspapers. Tornillo sought monetary damages and an injunction to force the Herald to run his reply.

Proceedings below: A circuit court in Florida found for the Herald, saying the law in

question violated the First Amendment freedom of the press. The Florida Supreme Court

reversed, however, finding no violation of the First Amendment.

Question before the court: Does a law requiring newspapers to run replies from political

candidates criticized in editorials violate the First Amendment guarantee of a free press?

Holding: The Florida law violates the First Amendment. The decision of the Florida

Supreme Court is reversed.

Reasoning: A law requiring a newspaper to publish material that its publishers and

editors would not choose to publish puts government in the position of deciding newspaper content. Such a law amounts to a form of censorship, because by publishing the material that the Florida law requires, the newspaper loses the right to publish something of its own choosing.

Concurrences: None of importance.

Dissents: None.