elect and Research two of these cases to brief. The Instructions to complete this assignment are list below Develop a Brief for the following cases Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon Bomber) Arizona v. Arias (Murder) Roe v. Wade (Abortion) Brown v. Board of Education (School Desegregation) California v. Simpson (Murder) Texas v. Johnson (Burning the American Flag) Briefing Case Information How to Brief Cases To fully understand the Law, you need to be able to read and understand court decisions. To make this task easier, you can use a method of case analysis that is called briefing. There is a fairly standard procedure that you can follow when you “brief” any court case. You must first read the case opinion carefully. When you feel you understand the case, you can prepare a brief for it. Although the brief’s format may vary, it will typically present the essentials of the case under headings such as those listed below. 1 Citation. Give the full citation for the case, including the name of the case, the date it was decided, and the court that decided it. 2 Facts. Briefly indicate (a) the reasons for the lawsuit; (b) the identity and arguments of the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s), Issue. Concisely phrase, in the form of a question, the essential issue before the court. (If more than one issue is involved, you may have two or even more questions here.) 4 Decision. Indicate here with a “yes” or “no,” if possible the court’s answer to the question (or questions) in the Issue section above. 5 Reason. Summarize as briefly as possible the reasons given by respectively; and (c) the lower court’s decision if appropriate. 3 the court for its decision (or decisions) and the case or statutory Law relied on by the court in arriving at its decision. Review of Sample Court Case Here, I have provided a review of the briefed version to indicate the kind of information that is contained in each section. CITATION The name of the case is Berger v. City of Seattle. Berger is the plaintiff; the City of Seattle is the defendant. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided this case in 2008. The citation states that this case can be found in volume 512 of the Federal Reporter, Third Series on page 582. FACTS The Facts section identifies the plaintiff and the defendant, describes the events leading up to this suit, the allegations made by the plaintiff in the initial suit, and (because this case is an appellate court decision) the lower court’s ruling and the party appealing. The party appealing’s argument on appeal is also sometimes included here. ISSUE The Issue section presents the central issue (or issues) decided by the court. In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered whether certain rules imposed on street performers by local government authorities satisfied the requirements for valid restrictions on speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. DECISION The Decision section includes the court’s decision on the issues before it. The decision reflects the opinion of the judge or justice hearing the case. Decisions by appellate courts are frequently phrased in reference to the lower court’s decision. In other words, the appellate court may “affirm” the lower court’s ruling or “reverse” it. Here, the court determined that Seattle’s rules were “content neutral” and “narrowly tailored” to “promote a substantial government interest that would otherwise be achieved less effectively.” The court found in favor of the city and reversed the lower court’s ruling in the plaintiff’s (Berger’s) favor. REASON The Reason section includes references to the relevant laws and legal principles that the court applied in coming to its conclusion in the case. The relevant Law in the Berger case included the requirements under the First Amendment for evaluating the purpose and effect of government regulation with respect to expression. This section also explains the court’s application of the Law to the facts in this case.