Assignment task: Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128 (1990)
[In regards to the above case citation, the first number (392) identifies the volume of the United States Reports in which the case can be found. The U.S. indicates that the case can be found in the U.S. Reports which is the official bound volume of reports for the U.S. Supreme Court. The second number (1) is the page on which the case will be found. The last number (1968) indicates the year in which the case was decided.] This section is for information purposes only. Do not include this information in your case brief.-
Facts of the Case: [Briefly describe the factual circumstances that caused this case to be brought before the US Supreme Court. This should probably take a few paragraphs depending on the case. You should also discuss what happened in the defendant's case at the trial and lower appellate levels of court.]
Legal Issues: [In this section you will describe the legal issues that the U.S. Supreme Court is facing. For example, in the Terry case, the Court was trying to determine under what circumstances an officer should be able to stop/ detain a person they believe to be involved in criminal activity. In addition, they were trying to determine under what circumstances an officer should be able to search a person that has been detained and how extensive that search should be. The Court was applying Fourth Amendment standards to the conduct of the police officer stopping the defendant. Sometimes the Court may address more than one legal issue in deciding a case.
Court's Analysis: [In this section you will describe how and why the Court reached its decision. You will notice that throughout the written case opinion the justices rely upon prior court decisions to determine what the law should be in the case they are currently addressing. Sometimes the justices will look to changing societal/ legislative standards to help them reach their decisions. Try to evaluate the case to determine why the justices decided the case in the manner in which they did. It would help if you attempted to identify the 2-3 prior case law decisions the US Supreme Court majority relies on to support their decision. Please discuss how the Court is applying the decisions in the previous cases to the current case before them.
Holding/ Rule of Law: [In this section you will identify the decision of the Court. Identify the rule of law that was created by the case. For example, in the Terry case, the U.S. Supreme Court decided those police officers could stop/ detain a person if they had reasonable suspicion that the person was currently, was about to be, or has previously been involved in criminal activity. The Court decided that the police could detain the person for a "reasonable amount" of time. The Court also determined that the police could do a pat down of a person's outer clothing if the officer had reasonable suspicion to believe that the person was armed and dangerous.