Instructions
The case that I chose is the Supreme Court Case of Madison vs. Alabama
1. The following presentation is intended to help you successfully complete the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case essay assignment. Please read all the directions. This will save you from having to rewrite the essay.
2. Choose a RECENT SCOTUS case that interests you in the world of criminal law or criminal procedure. You must choose any case on a criminal law or criminal process topic heard by the SCOTUS to research and write an essay about it. Please use a case decided by the US Supreme Court in the last 10 to 12 years. Please do not use Gideon v Wainwright or Miranda or other well known cases that you have discussed a million times.
***Caveat – you may not write on a case you previously used in another class.***
3. Research the details about the case (answer the five research questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why). Take notes about what you discover. Note the sources of your information. You must list your sources at the end of the essay in Bluebook citation format, proper footnotes in Bluebook format throughout the essay, and properly cite the sources of each piece of information in the essay itself.
4. After researching a case, organize the information you have collected by making an outline. A basic structure for organizing your information might be as follows.
A. Introduction:
1. Identify the name of the case and when it was heard before SCOTUS. A bluebook citation to the case is best used here. For example, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 US 335 (1963).
2. Identify the parties involved in the case.
3. Briefly describe the focus of the case.
B. Describe the case itself: What was the controversy in the case?
C. How did the case move through the courts before reaching SCOTUS?
1. What court had original jurisdiction in the case?
2. How had previous courts ruled in the case?
D. What did the SCOTUS rule in the case?
1. What was the argument of the majority opinion?
2. What was the argument of the minority opinion?
E. What was the reasoning used by the SCOTUS to reach its decision? How did it reach its decision?
F. Conclusion: How does the Court’s ruling in the case affect Americans today?
1. Has the Court’s ruling in the case affected other rulings in other cases?
2. Has the Court’s ruling affected the interpretation and enforcement of any particular laws, and how those laws are enforced?
3. If applicable: Has the Court’s ruling in this case affected you, or someone you know, personally?
5. Write your essay. If you organized your information based on the suggested outline, then all you have to do is write down what you have learned from your research, and put it into a footnoted two to three page essay. Your first paragraph is the introduction (the information under letter A of your outline). The second paragraph is the information under letter B, and so on.
6. Sources: Be sure to cite your sources, using sequentially numbered footnotes. That means any information you learned from another source, such as a website, a magazine article, a videotaped interview, etc., must be properly noted in your essay. Make sure you use footnotes in proper BlueBook citation style. Footnotes appear at the bottom of each page, not at the end of the document (those are endnotes).
7. The grading criteria is in the supporting materials, so review it before writing your essay.
