I need help filing my brief regarding the expulsion under MN Governor Wal EO. 20-79 Must be submitted by the end of the week. October 29, 2021 You can maintain your credibility to formulate the questions of the call in a balanced way; But there is another challenge: making the questions understandable. If judges can`t figure out what it`s all about, from the first substantial exposure to your handwriting — a statement they expect to be clear — they may have much less patience with the parts of your brief that may legitimately be complex. And finally, what about the answers? They are optional, but this is the rare case – if any – where it makes sense to waive the option to submit one. One of us has already argued on behalf of the government in a criminal case before the Supreme Court in which the petitioner simply did not bother to submit a response letter. The court decided the case 5-4 in favor of the government, with the unusual coalition of Justices Brennan, Marshall, Scalia and Kennedy disagreeing. It would be easy to believe that the government`s excellent written and oral argument ensured the outcome, regardless of what the other side did, but it is questionable whether an effective response could have influenced any of the judges who formed the narrow majority. It is a mystery why the lawyer missed the opportunity to have the last word in such a narrow case. 3. If something is extremely important in your briefing, at least repeat it elsewhere in the briefing.
Otherwise, you risk a judge accidentally forgetting it. Some cases warrant brief oral arguments. The first case, which one of us tried before the Supreme Court, was a relatively simple Fourth Amendment case; The total number of pages of the applicant`s pleading, the defendant`s arguments and the reply was less than the 50 pages permitted by the rules governing the opening statement of a single party. But that`s unusual. Other cases justify the total number of pages allotted by the rules, or (with court approval) even more. In most cases, however, it is advisable to defend the lower court approach and, in addition, to propose either an approach expressly called the “alternative” approach, or an embellishment of the next decision. Of course, there are times when defending the reasoning of the next decision is the only way to get confirmation. In cases such as administrative authorities, the Court of Appeal may not accept the grounds on which the Agency`s decision was based; Similarly, a court considering a jury verdict cannot confirm it on a basis that was never presented to the jury.
Need help writing an appellant`s brief for the Supreme Court Section 24.1(h) of the Supreme Court warns that “[a] mere repetition of the headings under which the argument is presented is not sufficient” summary of the argument. The same caution certainly applies to any court that requires a summary. But it is equally important to remember that the arguments titles themselves also have a summary function. Some appellate readers skip the table of contents and authority when they first take a brief, but many do not, and virtually all return to the table of contents at some point when trying to understand the structure of a brief. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the title of the arguments so that, when they are ripped from the text and stand on their own, they present the party`s position in a complete, understandable and (within limits) convincing way. The reader will surely understand the point and maybe even have a smile from the tedious task of reading a letter. No matter what law students should learn, and no matter what lawyers think they know, call after appeal is lost, or at least harder to win, because they receive ineffective briefs. What for? Partly because many lawyers rarely write appeals. When they have to appeal, they don`t realize that the work is different from that of many other lawyers. It raises particular problems, but offers special opportunities for advocacy.
An example from one of our recent cases could illustrate the difference. It was an antitrust case. Our introductory brief (for the complainants) contained five questions of less than half a page. We lightly loaded one of them with some useful facts: Call rules usually give the letter writer at the bottom the option to waive some of the features required in the briefing at the top. It is rarely necessary to repeat or correct foreseeable considerations of the basis of jurisdiction and the nature of subsequent decisions. On the other hand, it is usually useful in a substantive briefing to rephrase the questions asked and write a contradictory opinion about the case. Advocacy plays a role in the wording of the questions submitted, but it is a mistake – and a common mistake – to tip the wording of the topic too clearly in your favor. Let`s take an extreme example: suppose your case raises the question of whether urgent circumstances allowed police officers to enter your client`s home without a search warrant; Police say they acted to prevent the destruction of drugs that could be used as evidence. In such a case, you shouldn`t ask questions like, “Was the Fourth Amendment suspended because of the `war on drugs`?” You can, if the situation warrants it, try to suggest to the court that the search was intolerable and that overzeal in the “war on drugs” explains the government`s behavior (and the court`s verdict that tolerates that behavior) – but keep the point for the argument section. If you start so controversially in the submitted question, the court will conclude that you are unwilling or never able to be balanced.
This will cast a skeptical eye on everything you say and assume that everything is weird. Your credibility – a key part of a briefing – will disappear. The author of this sentence asked too much. The sentence introduces too many concepts without pause. By contrast, a few years ago, one of the authors had a rare opportunity to use vivid prose to make his point, namely that an Arkansas road tax unconstitutionally discriminated against interstate commerce by exempting trucks carrying agricultural products (which, not coincidentally, were primarily local), while those carrying equally heavy cargoes of other goods (which came mainly from abroad). Have been fully taxed: One last point on this subject: the Statement of Facts is the place to introduce the parties and explain any abbreviations you will use to refer to them, as well as the acronyms you wish to use in the argument. Such quick references can help keep writing alive, which is an important goal. Rule 28(d) of the FRAP specifically advises counsel “to minimize references to parties with designations such as `appellant` and `appellant`”.
This advice is just one example of a larger point. A lawyer writing a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court needs to consult only one set of formal rules: the rules of the U.S. Supreme Court, which came into effect in their current form on January 1, 1990. These rules are clearly written and easy to understand to the extent that they go. However, experienced Supreme Court litigators know that some Supreme Court practices do not appear anywhere in the rules. Since this useful technique (and a few others) are not included in the rules, a Supreme Court letter writer would normally consult the main treatise on alpha and omega of Supreme Court practice. The book Supreme Court Practice, known for decades as “Stern and Gressman,” appeared in late 1993 in a seventh edition, written by Robert L.