Briefs 1,2,3

PART 1

Brief ONE of the three recent Supreme Court cases from the 2015 term attached to this assignment. While each of the cases are long, please don’t submit a case brief longer than 3 pages. Use the same format you used for last week’s assignment. Try to incorporate the lessons you learned from last week’s practice case assignment in to your writing. Before briefing one of the three Supreme Court cases attached, please take a look at the handouts from last week dealing with how to brief a case.

Case briefs are used to highlight the key information contained within a case for use within the legal community as court cases can be quite lengthy. When writing case briefs, all information must be properly cited. Make sure you are not copying and pasting from your source. Most of the material should be paraphrased; quotations should make up no more than 10% of the brief. Note: since the purpose to is highlight and summarize key information, merely copying and pasting from the case does not accomplish this goal. You must summarize the facts in your own words, using quotations sparingly.

Remember to proof read your work! Additionally, don’t forget to submit it as a .doc or .docx document and to actually submit it for grading!

Good luck.

Supporting Materials

• EEOCcase.pdf (144 KB)
• obergefellcase.pdf (429 KB)
• Glossipcase.pdf (798 KB)

PART 2

Prepare an office memorandum to answer this question:

You are a paralegal working in Plentibux & Moore, a boutique Atlantic City, New Jersey law firm that specializes in white-collar criminal defense. The senior partner in the firm, Bob Plentibux calls you in to his office and tells you that he has a hot issue for you to research. The United States Attorney, Dirk Lynch, has indicated that he intends to call the firm’s best paralegal, Jack Starr, as a witness in a case. Jack has been involved in witness interviews, case research, and document review in the most important murder case in the firm.

Mr. Plentibux is concerned about what they can make Jack say and wants to know what the limits of paralegal confidentiality are in New Jersey . He tells you to look at New Jersey’s Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and to conduct a Lexis search to find some cases and applicable Rules to answer the question. Mr. Plentibux hands you a handout that he said might help start your research.

Be sure to cite your sources using proper Blue Book format. Your Memo may not exceed 3 pages single-spaced.

Supporting Materials

• NJETHICS.pdf (363 KB)

PART 3

Memo to: Jack Starr, Paralegal
Sanity Boards

I was just contacted by my good friend, Fred Payne, about his son, Sergeant Ima Payne of the United States Army Infantry. It seems SGT Payne has gotten in to some trouble and has been criminally charged by the Army. Fred did not know what the charges were, but at this point, that is not important. Fred told me that his son has been acting very strangely and asked me about the rules for having a soldier facing court-martial evaluated by a sanity board.

Here is the thing – Ima is an interesting fellow. Over the years, most folks who met him would shake their heads and wonder what was with that guy. He doesn’t seem to be on the same sheet of music as most folks and is always doing strange things. It seems this pattern of behavior has continued, and his father strongly suspects that it may be connected to his misconduct in the Army. He also has some question in his mind about whether his son will be able to participate meaningfully in his defense, as he seems to be disoriented and is displaying bizarre behavior.

I need a quick but detailed answer as to what a sanity board is, how it must be requested, and if and when a military judge is required by law to approve such a request. I believe that Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 706, found in the Manual for Courts-Martial (M.C.M.), is the applicable rule. I want you to focus on the rule and how it is to be applied. We don’t know much about the case at this point, but don’t worry about that. Again – right now, I am just concerned about the rule and how it is to be applied by the military judge.

Here are some cases that I want you to review. They should shed more light on the standard the military judge must apply in deciding whether or not to order a sanity board. The cases are as follows:

United States v. Nix, 36 C.M.R. 76 (C.M.A. 1965)

United States v. Kish, 20 M.J. 652 (A.C.M.R. 1985).

United States v. English, 47 M.J. 215 (C.A.A.F. 1997).

United States v. Pattin, 50 M.J. 637 (A.C.C.A. 1999).

Draft an office memorandum, using the same format you have been using. Make sure you cite the relevant R.C.M. and the case law in your memo. Your answer must not exceed five pages in length. Make sure you use proper Blue Book citation in your memo. A .pdf file containing the 2008 Manual for Courts-Martial is in your classroom. Use LexisNexis for your research.

Here is an additional note to help you with the case citation for the cases I’ve given you. Over the years, the names of the military appellate courts have changed. That accounts for the different citations you see in the cases I listed. The highest military appellate court was named the Court of Military Appeals (C.M.A.) back when Nix was decided. It was re-designated as the Federal Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (C.A.A.F.) before Pattin was decided. Similarly, the Army Court of Military Review (A.C.M.R.) was re-designated the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (A.C.M.R.). Additionally, the reporter in which military cases were published was formerly the Courts-Martial Reports (C.M.R.) from 1951 until 1975. This was changed in 1975 to the Military Justice Reports (M.J.). The Military Justice Reports is still in use today.