Understanding Supreme Court Opinions

Going beyond the standard interpretation of Supreme Court opinions, this practical text delves into the legal reasoning behind the written opinions - the modes of persuasion and justification used by Supreme Court justices - to give readers a deeper understanding of how to read and interpret the decisions of our highest court. An indispensable supplement to any constitutional law casebook, the sixth edition has been thoroughly updated, incorporating new material throughout the book on recent opinions issued by the Supreme Court. It also includes a new Chapter 9, which discusses in greater depth the briefing of a case -Seattle School District No. 1 - and its analysis.

Tyll can Geel joined the University faculty in 1972 and later was named the Earl B. Taylor Professor and chair of Educational Leadership. He was named an Emeritus Professor in 2007. His research includes legal and applied issues in education.

Van Geel is the co-author of Educational Law: An Introduction for Administrators and Policy Makers, a popular textbook used in the preparation of educational leaders and a very accessible resource for the modern educational administrator. He also authored Understanding Supreme Court Opinions and numerous articles and chapters in publications for the academic and legal communities, as well as for professional educators. He is currently working on a book on democracy and education.

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
About the Author	p. xiv
	p. 1
The Supreme Court: Policy Maker and Teacher	p. 3
Constitutional Conflicts	p. 4
An Overview of the Constitution	p. 5
Getting the Supreme Court to Play Its Role	p. 7
Basic Features of a Supreme Court Opinion	p. 16
Practice Pointers	p. 18
The Constitution in a Nutshell	p. 21
The Court as Supervisor of the Boundaries of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Authority (The First Feature)	p. 21
The Court as Umpire of Federal-State Relations (The Second Feature)	p. 28
The Court as Supervisor of Government's Relationship to the Individual (The Third Feature)	p. 30
The Court as Enforcer of Government Evenhandedness: Equal Protection (The Fourth Feature)	p. 34
The Court as Supervisor of Government's Relationship with Religion (The Fifth Feature)	p. 37
Constitutionality of Federal and State Law: An Addendum	p. 38
Practice Pointers	p. 39
Opinion Writing in the Supreme Court	p. 41
Writing a Supreme Court Opinion: The General Problem	p. 41
Constraints and Expectations	p. 43
Conclusion	p. 51
Practice Pointers	p. 51
	p. 53
The Legal Materials Used in Building a Constitutional Opinion	p. 55
Constitutional Interpretation (or Not)?	p. 56
Originalism	p. 57
Nonoriginalism	p. 62
Liberalism and Conservatism	p. 71
Judicial Activism and Deference	p. 72
Practice Pointers	p. 73
Tests or Standards of Review	p. 75
Tests in General	p. 75
Selected Examples of Tests	p. 78
Tests and the Illusion of Certainty	p. 86
Practice Pointers	p. 87
Precedent	p. 89
A Terminological Interlude	p. 89
The English Doctrine of Precedent	p. 91
The Theory of the Doctrine of Precedent	p. 94
The Doctrine of Precedent (Stare Decisis) in the Supreme Court	p. 95
Expanding and Narrowing Precedent	p. 99
Working with Conflicting Lines of Precedent	p. 106
The Effects of Narrow and Broad Readings of Precedent	p. 108
Practice Pointers	p. 109
Strategies of Justification	p. 111
The Syllogism and Deductive Reasoning	p. 111
Deduction and the Analogy	p. 113
Deduction and Balancing	p. 114
Judicial Disagreements	p. 120
Conclusion	p. 122
A Closer Look at Deduction: An Addendum	p. 123
Practice Pointers	p. 125
	p. 127
Briefing a Supreme Court Opinion	p. 129
The Facts	p. 129
The Majority Opinion	p. 130
Concurring and Dissenting Opinions	p. 140
The Dynamics of Opinion Writing	p. 142
Briefing Griswold	p. 143
The Legal Significance of Griswold	p. 146
Practice Pointers	p. 147
Analysis of a Supreme Court Case	p. 149
The Brief of Seattle School District No. 1	p. 149
Questions Directed to 'Explaining' the Case	p. 159
Evaluative Judgment: The Legal Sufficiency of the Decision	p. 161
Political and Policy Implications of the Opinion	p. 164
Practice Pointers	p. 167
Table of Cases	p. 169
Index	p. 173
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Understanding Supreme Court Opinions

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials