Understanding Supreme Court Opinions

The Fifth Edition has been thoroughly updated, incorporating throughout material on opinions issued by the Supreme Court since the last edition. It also a substantial revision of Chapter 4 — “The Legal Materials Used in Building a Constitutional Opinion” — to make major points clearer to students; a modification of Chapter 7 — “Strategies of Justification” — to make it more accessible; a sample brief in Chapter 8 to illustrate writing a brief; a new feature — “Practical Pointers” — following the first seven chapters and designed to help students use constitutional materials in making legal arguments; additional coverage of issues related to terrorism.