dyfan/halluhard-seed-questions huggingface dataset:
Legal question (Bar Exam): A long-standing corporate officer habitually negotiated and signed contracts on behalf of a corporation for many years and the board never objected. A new partner claims that an officer's recent signing of a large, unauthorized contract bound the corporation because the officer had apparent authority. Under agency principles concerning apparent authority, is the corporation likely bound by the officer's act?
Legal question (Bar Exam): In a closely held corporation, the majority shareholder caused the company to sell a valuable asset to an entity the majority controlled at below-market value and paid herself large distributions while minority shareholders received nothing. The minority shareholders sue for breach of fiduciary duty. Under corporate fiduciary duty principles in closely held corporations, may the minority shareholders prevail on a claim that the majority engaged in oppressive self‑dealing?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A general partnership formed under the Uniform Partnership Act incurred business debts that the partnership cannot pay. A creditor sues one partner and obtains a money judgment against that partner individually. Under partnership law, may the creditor then seek satisfaction of the judgment from the other partners' personal assets or the partnership assets?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A state forensic laboratory analyst prepared a report concluding that DNA from a crime scene matches a defendant and the lab report was offered at trial while the analyst was unavailable to testify. The defense objects that admitting the lab report without the analyst's testimony violates the defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation right. Under Crawford and its progeny regarding 'testimonial' forensic reports, is admission of the lab report without the analyst's live testimony likely to violate the Confrontation Clause?
Legal question (Bar Exam): An elderly testator under suspicious circumstances executed a new will leaving her entire estate to her caregiver and disinheriting her children. The testator had dementia and the caregiver was present during preparation of the new will and allegedly exerted pressure. Under the doctrines of testamentary capacity and undue influence, is the new will likely to be invalidated if undue influence and lack of capacity are proven?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A testator wrote and signed a will in her handwriting but did not have it attested by witnesses. In the state where she lived, the statute of wills requires two attesting witnesses for a formal will. Under the typical statutory requirements for formal wills, is the unattested holographic writing likely to be admitted as a valid will in that state?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A buyer and seller of goods orally agree to modify their original written contract for the sale of goods increasing the price to $12,000. The original contract was in writing. Under UCC §2-209 and §2-201 regarding modifications and the statute of frauds, is the oral modification enforceable without a writing?
Legal question (Bar Exam): At trial, the prosecutor seeks to impeach a defendant's credibility by asking on cross-examination about an alleged prior dishonest act for which the defendant was never charged or convicted. The prosecutor offers no extrinsic proof of the act. Under FRE 608(b) concerning inquiry into specific instances of conduct bearing on truthfulness, is the prosecutor permitted to cross-examine the defendant about the prior dishonest act?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A defendant's jury at trial is unable to reach a unanimous verdict after extended deliberations, and the judge declares a mistrial due to a hung jury. The prosecution seeks to retry the defendant on the same charges. Under the Double Jeopardy Clause and its exceptions, may the defendant be retried following a mistrial for failure to reach a verdict?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A nonresident motorist driving through State Y is personally served with process while briefly stopped for a meal. The underlying car-accident claim arose in another state unrelated to the stop in State Y. The defendant moves to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Under traditional 'tag' jurisdiction principles, can State Y exercise personal jurisdiction based on the in‑person service?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A shareholder brings a derivative action against the board of directors alleging waste and self-dealing but did not first make a demand on the board to pursue the claim and the majority of the board consists of directors who are independent and disinterested. Under the demand‑requirement in derivative suits and the business judgment rule, is the complaint likely to be dismissed for failure to make a demand?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A homeowner purchased land without knowledge of a prior unrecorded mortgage and thereafter recorded her deed in the county records. The lender later records its mortgage after the homeowner's recording. In a state that follows a notice recording statute, does the homeowner's status as a subsequent bona fide purchaser without notice protect her from the prior unrecorded mortgage?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A seller and buyer orally agreed that the seller would deliver 200 custom-printed jerseys for $8,000, to be paid on delivery. After production but before delivery, the seller demanded an extra $1,000, and the buyer agreed orally. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, is that oral modification enforceable without new consideration?
Legal question (Bar Exam): Two merchants orally agreed to the sale of 150 widgets for $1,200. One merchant promptly sent the other a written confirmation of the deal, but the receiving merchant never replied and later refused to perform. Under the UCC merchant-confirmation rule, is the oral agreement enforceable against the receiving merchant?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A contract for the shipment of 500 units required delivery over three monthly installments. The seller delivered a nonconforming installment but notified the buyer that it would replace the goods within the contract period. The buyer immediately rejected the entire contract; under the UCC's rules on cure and installment contracts, can the buyer lawfully reject the whole contract?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A manufacturer sold a power lawnmower that later exploded due to a design defect, seriously injuring the operator. The mower was used as intended and had no post-sale modifications. Can the injured operator recover from the manufacturer under a theory of strict products liability?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A driver negligently ran a red light and struck a pedestrian, who survived but suffered severe emotional distress after seeing a loved one die in the same collision. The bystander was not in the zone of physical danger but witnessed the death. Under the bystander rule for negligent infliction of emotional distress, can the bystander recover purely for emotional harm?
Legal question (Bar Exam): Police arrested a suspect for burglary and obtained a lab report showing the suspect's DNA matched evidence at the scene; the analyst who prepared the report did not testify, and the prosecutor offered the report through the arresting officer. Is the analyst's lab report testimonial such that its admission would violate the Confrontation Clause absent the analyst's live testimony?
Legal question (Bar Exam): Shortly after a two-car collision, a driver yelled to a passerby, 'That other driver ran the red light and broadsided me!' The passerby would testify to the driver's out-of-court statement at trial. Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, is the passerby's testimony about the driver's immediate description of events admissible as an excited utterance?
Legal question (Bar Exam): During an armed bank robbery, a getaway driver fired a handgun, killing a bystander. One of the robbers who planned the robbery stayed outside the bank and did not fire a weapon. Under the felony-murder rule and accomplice liability, can the non-shooting robber be convicted of murder for the bystander's death?
Legal question (Bar Exam): An undercover officer supplied a hesitant individual with a small quantity of illegal pills over several weeks, repeatedly urging the person to distribute larger quantities to others. When arrested, the defendant claimed entrapment. Under the government inducement and predisposition test, is entrapment a complete defense?
Legal question (Bar Exam): After being Mirandized, a suspect signed a waiver and answered several questions. The suspect later said, 'I want a lawyer,' and questioning stopped. Two hours later, without counsel present and after a brief additional Miranda advisement, officers resumed interrogation and obtained a confession. Is the confession admissible under Miranda and Edwards principles?
Legal question (Bar Exam): An officer observed a person pacing nervously in a high-crime neighborhood and watching the officer as he passed; when the person saw the patrol car he fled on foot. The officer stopped and frisked the person and found a loaded handgun. Under Terry v. Ohio principles, was the stop-and-frisk reasonable?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A state enacted a law imposing a higher licensing fee on out-of-state trucking companies than on in-state carriers, arguing it raises revenue to repair local roads. Under the Dormant Commerce Clause doctrine, is the state law likely constitutional?
Legal question (Bar Exam): At a public high school graduation, the school superintendent invited a local clergy member to deliver a brief, official prayer to open the ceremony. Parents sued, claiming an Establishment Clause violation. Is a school-sponsored, clergy-led prayer at a graduation ceremony constitutional?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A corporation that is incorporated and headquartered in State A sells a single shipment of goods to a buyer in State B once every few years. A tort claim arose in State B and the plaintiff sued the corporation there. Under the Supreme Court's general-jurisdiction standard, does State B have general jurisdiction over the corporation?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A plaintiff filed a diversity action in federal court based on state-law claims and relied on the state's two-year statute of limitations. The defendant argued federal courts should apply a federal equitable tolling doctrine that would extend the limitations period. Under the Erie doctrine, must the federal court apply the state's statute of limitations and tolling rules as substantive law?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A plaintiff filed a federal-question claim and later sought to add a state-law claim against a different defendant that arose from separate facts. The state claim does not share the same nucleus of operative fact as the federal claim. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1367, can the federal court exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the new state-law claim?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A person openly occupied a vacant lot, maintained a garden, and paid property taxes for nine years in a jurisdiction where the statutory period for adverse possession is ten years. The record owner did not otherwise use the land. Has the occupant acquired title by adverse possession?
Legal question (Bar Exam): O conveys Blackacre to A by deed, which A fails to record. O then conveys the same parcel to B, who pays value and records the deed without notice of the earlier conveyance to A. In a notice jurisdiction, does B have superior title?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A company employee who manages local vendor relations orally negotiated and signed a long-term supply contract that exceeded the employee's written authority. The company had previously allowed the employee to sign minor contracts and had not publicly limited the employee's authority. Is the company bound under the doctrine of apparent authority?
Legal question (Bar Exam): A director caused the corporation to buy a building owned personally by the director at a price believed by the director to be fair; the director participated in the board vote without disclosing the financial interest and the board approved the transaction. Under corporate fiduciary duty rules, is the transaction presumptively voidable for self-dealing?
Legal question (SCALR): Does a brief investigative stop and a limited frisk for weapons require only reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause under the Fourth Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): Does attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and monitoring its movements on public streets constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the exclusionary rule require suppression of evidence obtained in an unlawful federal search and seizure?
Legal question (SCALR): May police enter a private residence without a warrant to search for a fleeing armed suspect under the Fourth Amendment's exigent‑circumstances or hot‑pursuit doctrines?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Fourth Amendment protect oral communications intercepted from a public telephone when the speaker has a reasonable expectation of privacy?
Legal question (SCALR): Is a search incident to a lawful arrest limited to the arrestee's person and the area within the arrestee's immediate control for purposes of the Fourth Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): May police search the digital contents of a cellphone seized incident to an arrest without a warrant under the Fourth Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the automobile exception permit warrantless searches of vehicles when officers have probable cause to believe the vehicle contains contraband?
Legal question (SCALR): Is a drug‑detection dog sniff conducted at the front door of a home a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): Must probable cause for issuing a search warrant be evaluated under a 'totality of the circumstances' test rather than a rigid two‑part formula?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the First Amendment protect advocacy of illegal action unless the advocacy is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action?
Legal question (SCALR): May a State criminalize desecration of the American flag consistent with the First Amendment's protection of expressive conduct?
Legal question (SCALR): Do public‑school students retain First Amendment rights on school grounds so long as their speech does not substantially disrupt school operations?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Establishment Clause require that governmental aid to religious institutions satisfy a three‑part test evaluating secular purpose, primary effect, and excessive entanglement?
Legal question (SCALR): May a public school district deny access to school facilities for a religious group's presentation if it allows other groups to use the facilities for comparable expressive purposes?
Legal question (SCALR): May a public employer discipline an employee for statements made pursuant to the employee's official duties without running afoul of the First Amendment?
Legal question (SCALR): May a private organization exclude individuals from membership on the basis of expressive association even when a state law prohibits such exclusion?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Second Amendment protect an individual's right to possess a handgun in the home for the purpose of self‑defense?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Fourteenth Amendment make the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applicable against the States?
Legal question (SCALR): Under Chevron, must courts defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute that the agency administers?
Legal question (SCALR): May a federal court uphold an agency's action on grounds not relied upon by the agency at the time it acted?
Legal question (SCALR): May a municipality take private property and transfer it to a private developer as part of an economic development plan that is said to serve a public use?
Legal question (SCALR): Does a land‑use regulation that deprives a property owner of all economically beneficial use of their land constitute a per se taking requiring just compensation?
Legal question (SCALR): When a regulation does not deprive property of all economically beneficial use, must regulatory‑takings claims be assessed under a multi‑factor balancing test rather than treated as per se takings?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Sixth Amendment guarantee the right to appointed counsel for indigent defendants in all felony prosecutions?
Legal question (SCALR): Does suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused violate the defendant's right to due process when the evidence is material to guilt or punishment?
Legal question (SCALR): May a State exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant only if that defendant has sufficient 'minimum contacts' with the forum so that jurisdiction does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice?
Legal question (SCALR): Are statements obtained during custodial interrogation inadmissible at trial unless the suspect has been warned of and waived the privilege against self‑incrimination and the right to counsel?
Legal question (SCALR): Does the Equal Protection Clause prohibit prosecutors from exercising peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors on the basis of race?
Legal question (SCALR): Are testimonial statements of a witness unavailable at trial barred by the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross‑examine that witness?
Legal question (Rule QA): What are the three prongs of the Miller test for determining obscene material?
Legal question (Rule QA): What three elements must a plaintiff satisfy to establish Article III standing under Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife?
Legal question (Rule QA): What two requirements comprise the Katz test for a reasonable expectation of privacy?
Legal question (Rule QA): What two prongs make up the Strickland v. Washington test for ineffective assistance of counsel?
Legal question (Rule QA): Under Batson v. Kentucky, what is the three-step framework for evaluating a claim of discriminatory use of peremptory strikes?
Legal question (Rule QA): What three factors did Penn Central establish for evaluating whether a regulation effects a taking under the Fifth Amendment?
Legal question (Rule QA): What three guideposts did BMW v. Gore set out for assessing the constitutionality of punitive damages?
Legal question (Rule QA): What elements must a plaintiff allege to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. §1983?
Legal question (Rule QA): Under Brady v. Maryland, what three elements must be shown to establish a Brady violation?
Legal question (Rule QA): What are the three prongs of the Brandenburg imminent lawless action test for speech-incitement liability?
Legal question (Rule QA): What is the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework used in Title VII disparate-treatment cases?
Legal question (Rule QA): Under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, what principal non-exclusive factors may courts consider when assessing the admissibility of scientific expert testimony?
Legal question (Rule QA): What are the traditional elements required to invoke res ipsa loquitur?
Legal question (Rule QA): What four formal requirements does the Fourth Amendment and warrant jurisprudence require for a valid search warrant?
Legal question (Rule QA): What are the two steps of the Chevron deference analysis for agency statutory interpretation?
Legal question (Rule QA): Under Chimel v. California, what limits govern the scope of a search incident to a lawful arrest?
Legal question (Rule QA): What specific warnings does Miranda v. Arizona require officers to give before custodial interrogation?
Legal question (Rule QA): What two-pronged inquiry defines the qualified immunity analysis articulated in Saucier v. Katz and addressed in Pearson v. Callahan?
Legal question (Rule QA): What standard for "actual malice" did New York Times Co. v. Sullivan announce for statements about public officials (and, by extension, public figures)?
Legal question (Rule QA): Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, what must a movant show to obtain summary judgment?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, does the federal Constitution recognize a protected right to obtain an abortion and what standard governs state restrictions on abortion under current Supreme Court precedent?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, may courts uphold firearm regulations by applying means‑end balancing, or must they instead apply a textual, historical, and traditional test to validate modern restrictions?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After the Supreme Court eliminated Chevron deference to agency statutory interpretations, may courts still defer to agencies’ readings of ambiguous statutes in any circumstances, and if so under what legal framework?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After West Virginia v. EPA and the Court’s increased use of the major‑questions doctrine, when must an agency point to clear congressional authorization before adopting a significant regulatory program?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After Allen v. Milligan, does the three‑part Gingles test continue to govern Section 2 vote‑dilution claims under the Voting Rights Act, and what facts are now necessary to show a minority community’s “ability to elect” a candidate of its choice?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After Moore v. Harper, to what extent may state courts interpret and apply state constitutions and statutes governing federal elections without being constrained by the independent‑state‑legislature doctrine?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After the Supreme Court held that the thirty‑day statutory deadline for removal from state court to federal court is mandatory and not subject to judicial extension, may federal courts nonetheless apply equitable tolling or other equitable doctrines to permit late removals?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After NFIB v. OSHA and related decisions, can federal agencies rely on broad emergency or public‑health authorities to impose sweeping workplace or nationwide mandates without an unmistakably clear congressional grant of power?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After United States v. Rahimi applied the Bruen framework to § 922(g)(8), may the government constitutionally disarm persons subject to domestic‑violence‑related protective orders, and what kinds of historical analogues are required to support such a prohibition?
Legal question (Changes in Law): After recent Supreme Court rulings addressing nationwide injunctions, what are the current limits on a single district court’s authority to enter an injunction that binds the federal government nationwide with respect to nonparties?