Dissecting a Supreme Court opinion

Case for Dissection: FCC v. AT&T INC.

Dissecting an opinion

Before you attempt to write a case brief, it's helpful first just to identify the parts of a judicial opinion. The case we are going to dissect is

As you read through the case, highlight and label the various parts of the case. Just highlight the most relevant parts. For example, in FCC v. AT&T, the first three pages go over the facts that gave rise to the case, but you wouldn't highlight all of this, just the most relevant parts - i.e., only the facts that are absolutely necessary to understand the case.

Before you start dissecting and highlighting FCC v. AT&T, take a look at the sample case that I've dissected and highlighted. The case is Snyder v. Phelps 562 U.S. _____ (2011), and can be found on the Moodle course page, in the section labeled "assignment guidelines."

Below are the elements that I would like for you to highlight and label.

1. Case info - i.e., name, citation number and year of the case you're briefing.

2. Facts - brief summary of the most relevant facts that gave rise to the case.

3. Procedural history - After stating the facts that gave rise to the disagreement, we're at the point where someone brought the issue into court. The procedural history begins at that point and ends with the case being before the Supreme Court. Identify which courts that case has been in and what each of those courts did.

4. Question(s) presented to the Court - the key issue(s) in the case; what the Court is being asked to decide.

5. Holding/finding - the result of the case. This includes both the procedural resolution (e.g., the Court upheld the lower court; the Court reversed the lower court, etc.) and the Court's answer to the question.

6. Legal reasoning/rationale - articulate the chain of logic the Court used to arrive at its opinion. In other words, how did the Court come to its conclusion?

7. Rule of law established - this is the principle that comes out of the case that lower courts will apply to similar cases in the future.

Attachment:- FCCvAT_T_case_for_dissection_assignment.pdf