POLS 4700H Constitutional Law: Powers (Wilhelm): Case Law

A brief is a written legal document that is presented to the court arguing why a party to the case should have a decision in their favor.

• Merit briefs are filed disclosing the facts and legal arguments of a case.  These are normally filed by the parties to the case.
• Amicus curiae briefs ("friend of the court") are filed by persons/groups not directly affilated with the case. These groups/persons often have an invested interest in the outcome.

Headnotes are summaries of the key legal points.  Headnotes are useful for a quick understanding of the decision, but they are the editor's remarks and not the court's.  

Footnotes, however, are written by the justices on the court.

An Opinion is an explanation of the decision of the court.  In the Supreme Court opinions are catagorized thus:

• Marjority opinion is written by a majority of members on the court.  It is from this vote where the legal decision and future precedent comes.  It explains the decision of the court on the matter at hand.
• Dissenting opinion is written by the minority judges who voted against the decision.  While not legally binding, the dissenting opinion explains the opposing argument made by other members of the court.
• Concurring opinion is written by a judge who voted in the majority, but for different reasons, which are set out in the concurring opinion.  They are not legally binding precedent, but explains the reasoning of that judge in the decision they made.
• Per curiam decision/opinion ("through the court") is written collectively and anonymously by the members of the majority.  A per curiam does not list the individual author of the decision, but any dissenting and concurring decisions are signed.

A syllabus summarizes the points decided in the case.

Good glossary for legal terminology.

Pronouncing Dictionary of the United States Supreme Court

If you find a citation to a court case, you can easily search for information about the case using a variety of sources:

Google Scholar Case Law Search (free):  Enter in a legal citation and it will pull up relevant opinions.

HeinOnline:  Search for a citation and the relevant opinion will come up with hyperlinked definitions and case law, which makes it easier to locate cited case law from the judge(s).

HeinOnline Universal Citation Guide:  Comprehensive Guide to all types of legal citations, including state, federal, and international courts.  

If you want to look up more in depth background information about Supreme Court cases, here are a few online books:

CASEBOOK:  Lewis, T. T. (2016). U.S. Supreme Court (Second edition.). Ipswich : Salem Press : Grey House Publishing.  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:  Hall, K. L., & Ely, J. W. (2009). The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

The UGA Law School Library exists to assist students and faculty affiliated with the Law School.  This means their resources are only available to their users.  The Law Librarians, however, are happy to help with outside research requests using free materials.  While they can't use their subscribed databases to help, the Librarians have a great deal of experience finding free versions of court documents.  You can contact them here:  lawref@uga.edu

REMEMBER:  Think of yourself as a guest in someone else's home.  Treat them with respect, kindness, and gratitude for their willingness to help you.

Click on "Federal Materials," and then "US Supreme Court" to find cases associated with the current docket.  

Next, type in the name of your case from the docket.  Choose your court case from the list.

Click on the "Brief It" button to get a Synopsis, as well as appellate holdings.  In appellate cases, holdings refer to the core legal principles established by a court's decision, effectively answering the main legal question in the case. These holdings are crucial as they dictate how similar legal issues should be decided in future cases. An appellate court's holding can affirm, reverse, or modify the lower court's decision, or remand the case for further proceedings. 

Click on "Table of Authorities" to view all cited cases by the Petitioner and the Respondent.  

Under this information are "Headnotes."  Headnotes are not written by the judges in cases.  They are added by Westlaw as a means of quickly ascertaining issues being decided upon by the court, and search for other court cases which decided on the same issues.

Once you've identified the subjects related to your Supreme Court case, you can now search again for case law which is related to it.  This step is essential because any decision will rely on this previous case law as evidence within justice opinions and dissents.  Regardless of which role you will be playing in the Moot Court, every student will need to understand the underlying question and how previous courts have ruled.

Finding precedent opinions is fairly simple, but locating briefs and other related documents from those decisions can be difficult for researchers who don't have access to the law school versions of Westlaw or Lexis.  Here are some resources which will help you locate those materials.

LII (Legal Information Institute)

A free legal information resource from the Cornell Law School.  LII has a great legal encyclopedia, as well as a Supreme Court blog and newsletter.

ProQuest Supreme Court Insight

Find briefs, dockets, joint appendixes, oral arguments, opinions and other documents for U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1975-present.  A good place to search to find all briefs, summaries, opinions, etc. organized by case on one screen.  Limit to Landmark Cases, and you can search for cases by subject including "Right to Privacy," "Fourth Amendment," "Due Process of Law," and the like.  INCLUDES BRIEFS.

PACER

PACER, which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records, is a service that provides electronic public access to federal court records. It allows users to view and download court documents and case information from appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. PACER is a centralized service maintained by the Federal Judiciary to ensure public access to court information.  PACER IS NOT FREE  The current cost is .10 per page.  PACER will waive fees if you spend less than $30 downloading materials.

RECAP

The RECAP Archive is a searchable collection of millions of PACER documents and dockets that were gathered using their RECAP Extensions for Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Basically, since the documents are in the public domain, any individual can automatically send PACER documents to which they have access to RECAP for free access to everyone.