In this exercise, we are going to learn why it is important to use Keycite to make sure we have good law. Keep in mind that other online and print citators may be used including Lexis and Shepard’s to conduct a review to ensure that we have the most updated law on a given subject– what is commonly referred to as “good law.”
In this course, we will use Westlaw which is powered by KeyCite to determine if case holdings are still “good law.”
Citator Exercises:
Using Westlaw, answer the following questions and then submit to assigned dropbox by due date.
1. Identify one negative treatment case in Tennessee v. Garner and explain what is the negative treatment for that particular case.
2. Identify the MOST negative treatment case for Gideon v. Wainwright and state the basis of the negative treatment.
3. Find a case that answers whether prisoners have a constitutional right to conjugal visits. Then indicate if there is any negative treatment of this case, and if so, in what manner.
4. Identify if US v. Windsor is good law, if it has been overturned, and if there is any negative treatment in HOW MANY cases.
5. Identify which case is most negative treatment for DeBoer v. Snyder. Is this case good law? Yes or No and explain why or why not.
6. Locate a case that is relevant to your proposed memorandum of law project (assigned next week.) Identify how many CITING REFERENCES that this case has and how many cases that have negative treatment. You must cite the case.
7. In continuance of question six, identify the negative treatment found (at least one negative) and explain how the negative treatment impacts upon the use of the case as authority. Remember that some negative authority makes the entire case bad law, whereas sometimes the negative authority limits its use or only pertains to a certain part of the case.
8. In relation to your proposed research for the memorandum, locate one statute that pertains to your subject. Identify that statute and indicate what color of flag is associated with that statute. Explain the color of the flag as to whether it is good law or not.
9. Besides verifying that a case or statute is current law, what else can citators like KeyCite, Nexis, New Shepard’s and BCite (Bloomberg) be used for in legal research? Explain two other uses of KeyCite.
10. If you are looking for a visual representation of how the case proceeded through the court system, identify which TAB you would use to show the court case from beginning to end. Identify a case of your choice, find the visual representation and indicate how many flags are yellow and how many are red in your diagram. You must provide the case name and citation for verification.
