Supreme Court Case Summary

This week’s assignment should include (a) summary of the case, and (b) a case outline

A. Summary of the Case

In one or two paragraphs, provide a general overview of the case that serves as a snapshot of what the case is about and how it ended up in your state high court. A summary is using your words to write a brief history of the case. Do not give your opinion or your interpretation but stick to the facts only.

B: Case Outline

Your court case outline should include:

  1. Title: Name of the case
  2. Facts of the case: Provide key facts involving the case.
  3. History of the case: What legal action was taken based on what your state laws say about this case?
  4. Legal questions: What were the legal issues the court had to decide?
  5. Decision or holdings: Did the court decide for the plaintiff or the defendant? Explain the reason behind the decision?
  6. Verdict and opinion (judgement): What were the concurring and dissenting opinions? How many judges decided for the defendant and how many justices decided against the defendant? What was the final verdict from the judge or the jury, if it was a jury trial?

Summary: What was the resulting impact of the ruling? How did the citizens of your state benefit from it? Make sure to not give our opinion but stick to the facts only. This summary just gives a brief rundown of the case and conclusion only, just the

Writing Requirements (APA format)

  • The length of your outline will vary. Usually an outline is anywhere from 1-3 pages long. Make sure to write full sentences to explain your case. It is a concise list to be used as a reference for you during the presentation.
    Using the outline, you will be describing the court case in your presentation and the scenario around the court case. The use of Wikipedia as a primary source of information is to be avoided – it is not a reliable source of information.
    Search for an example of a case outline in the Internet. Without going into much detail at this state, each of the items listed above has a subject sentence with 3-6 bullet points that can help you expand on the topic.

    For Week 8, you will be creating a narrated PowerPoint, or a video as approved by your instructor, from this week’s outline.
    This assignment is worth 200 points.

  • 1-inch margins
  • Double spaced
  • 12-point Times New Roman font
  • Title page
  • References page (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)
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