This is a summary of the guidelines. Please read the entire guidelines PDF.
BEFORE STARTING THE PAPER, you must complete the following by Sunday, 30 June 2024:
Provide the case name and full citation of a key Supreme Court ruling on a media law topic that interests you.
Post a brief statement (one to two sentences) describing a major critique or weakness concerning that Supreme Court ruling (that you have identified in a quick review of your Supreme Court case).
Upload (do not hyperlink) one law journal article that includes a discussion of the critique or weakness concerning your Supreme Court ruling (or related legal issue) that you presented in Step 2.
Your research paper should provide a concise, scholarly critique of a specific legal ruling, test, or analysis from one or more major Supreme Court rulings in electronic media law based on one of the general media law topics covered in the Mass Media Law textbook (PDF attached).
IMPORTANT: The essence of your research paper is the presentation of a scholarly critique of a particular Supreme Court ruling based on a critical analysis by a scholar as presented in a law journal article.
Relevant law review articles will commonly review the facts and opinions in your case, address weaknesses in the ruling, and then present subsequent cases that illustrate how those weaknesses were reflected in subsequent court rulings. The law review article will generally conclude with recommendations for resolving these weaknesses, either through future legal rulings, statutory or policy changes, or other possibilities. In some cases, rather than criticizing a court’s reasoning, a law review article might challenge criticisms and then defend the reasoning of the court majority. In other words, a law journal article might defend the majority opinion of the court in opposition to others who challenge or question the court’s ruling.
It is crucial to remember that you are NOT writing a final paper giving your “opinion” about your selected court ruling. The main thing to remember is that your research paper is to be based on your presentation of the critique or analysis of a scholar’s law journal article. Your research paper should not be based on your personal opinion of a court ruling or legal test.
Format and Structure
Your paper should include at least six total sources.
The textbook may serve as one source for the paper.
At least one source should be your U.S. Supreme Court case.
Your paper should discuss at least one source from a law journal or law review (e.g., Communication Law & Policy, Federal Communications Law Journal, Harvard Law Review) or a legal article in a non-legal scholarly journal (e.g., Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media).
Your other sources may include materials such as statutes, regulations, other court cases, ALR annotations (see list of secondary sources), legal blogs, news articles, and transcripts from television programs. Legal encyclopedias (see list of secondary sources in Westlaw) and Wikipedia DO NOT count as sources but may be useful as a starting point in your research process.
IMPORTANT: Your discussion of sources, such as court cases and law review articles, should indicate a detailed reading, summary, and evaluation of the source. A mere inclusion of one or two quotations without context is not a thorough analysis.
Your reference list should follow the APA style manual (7th Ed.).
In-text citations.
Citations in the reference list.
The final research paper should be between 9–12 pages (maximum of 15 pages).
Margins are to be 1” all around, and the font is to be 12-point Times New Roman.
All pages should be numbered consecutively, including the title page and references.
NO ABSTRACT.
Your title should be centered at the top of your first page of text.
Double-space all body text.
“References” should be centered at the top of the reference page. All references should be double-spaced.
