In distilling the reasoning of the court, always include an application of the general rule or rules of law to the specific facts of the case. Bring to light in this entry the court s implicit justifications, i.e., the reasons for the state of the law, the Justice s prejudices and biases, the public policies, the things which influence the Justices thinking and, ultimately, the outcome of the case. Include the concise rule of law. This should be a statement of the general principle of law which the case illustrates. Be careful in selecting the rule of law from the case.
Cases typically present more than one legal ruling.
If a particular legal ruling is only a step in the court s overall argument, then most likely it is not the decisive rule of law you seek. A rule of law is decisive when it is the court s final conclusion or final statement of the law. A good starting point is to check the chapter heading in your textbook where the case appears. This does not mean skimming a case. Rather, it means reading the case with an eye trained to recognize into which section of your brief a particular passage or line fits and having a system for quickly and precisely marking the case so that the passages fitting any one particular part of the brief can be easily identified and brought together in a concise and accurate manner when the brief is actually written.