About this Assignment
In this course you learned that employment law is constantly evolving and responding to temporary issues. For this assignment, you will be researching a contemporary employment law case decided by the United States Supreme Court. When considering what qualifies as a ‘contemporary employment law case’, please consider a law case that raises a legal question (or questions) related to the workplace and employer-employee relationships and that has been presented to the U.S. Supreme Court within the last 5 years. You will be preparing a case brief of the case you research.
For help locating U.S. Supreme Court cases, see:
Supreme Court of the United States
Justia
Your case brief should be approximately 600-800 words (not including your Reference page) in length. Use double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Use distinct headings to clearly identify each element (prompt) of your case brief.
Case Brief Prompts
Your case brief should include each of the following elements:
Procedural History: What is the history of the selected case? What prior courts heard the case? What were the rulings of the involved prior courts?
Facts: What are the critical facts of the case? Identify the parties and the facts that were considered in the Court’s ultimate holding.
Issues: What were the specific legal question(s) presented to the Court? Present the issues in clear and concise question format. If there were multiple legal questions, list each issue separately.
Holding (Decision): How did the Court answer the issues? What was the Court’s final decision with respect to each issue?
Court Rationale: Summarize of the Court’s reasoning. Why did the Court rule in the way that it did? How (and why) did the Court arrive at its ultimate answers to the legal issues?
Analysis: Share an original analysis and interpretation of the case and the Court’s ruling. What is the case’s significance? How has the case impacted our courts? How has the case impacted our government and/or our citizens? Do you agree with the Court’s analysis?
Using Sources
You may refer to the course material for supporting evidence, but you must also use at least two credible, outside sources and cite them using APA format. Identify any source in your Reference page. Any laws and legal cases used in the body of your paper must also be included in the References page.
Please include a mix of both primary and secondary sources. At least one of your sources should be the case opinion. If you use any Study.com lessons as sources, please also cite them in APA format (including the lesson title and instructor’s name).
Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews, advertisements, speeches, company documents, statements, and press releases published by the company in question within the case you selected.
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, such as the American Business Law Journal. You may use resources like JSTOR, Google Scholar, Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute and/or FindLaw to find articles from these journals and related case law. Secondary sources may also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)
If you’re unsure about how to use APA format to cite your sources, please see the following lessons:
What is APA Format? Definition & Style
How To Format APA Citations
Related Lessons
If you would like additional support on this assignment, please review the following lessons:
Employment Law: Challenges & Trends
What Is Tort Law? – Definition and Examples
Harm to Reputation or Economic Interests: Defamation, Libel, & Slander
Workers’ Rights: Union Organization & Management Relations
Diversity Issues in the Workplace: Discrimination, Sexism, Ageism & More
