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Discuss Aspects of a Court Case (Other (Not Listed) Sample)

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Using Blue book format to discuss aspects of a court case.

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Case 1: Snyder v. Phelps, 131 S. Ct. 1207 (2011)
Albert Snyder – the petitioner- was suing Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church – the respondent – for emotional distress. The respondents subscribed to the belief that the US was being punished by God for being an immoral nation as evidenced by their tolerance of homosexuality, especially in the military. As such they would often picket military funerals for soldiers who had died in the line of duty, protesting against their engaging in military action and thanking God for their demise. Operating under the first amendment free speech clause, they would inform authorities of their intention to picket and proceed with their actions in public areas adjacent to the burial sites.[Snyder v. Phelps, 131 S. Ct. 1207 (2011).]
The District Court of Maryland first heard the case and determined that the respondents should pay the petitioner $10.9 million (later revised to $5 million) for causing them emotional distress. An appeal filed at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the respondents’ actions – picketing military funerals and using derogatory language – were protected by the First Amendment. As such, the reversed the previous court’s ruling. The case was then presented before the Supreme Court with their direction that they rule whether the First Amendment protected the respondents’ picketing action and if this violated other citizens’ rights. The court determined that since the respondents were speaking on public matters – and did not particularly target the petitioner because they had no private relationship – their action was protected by the First Amendment. Therefore, the Supreme Court upheld the decision made by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.[Ibid.]
The Chief Justice, Roberts, was joined by eight other justices – Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, Ginsburg, Thomas, Kennedy and Scalia – in making the opinion. Justice Breyer concurred with their opinion stating that though the court made the particular ruling, the state had the prerogative of restricting individual freedoms as presented in the First Amendment if they violated other freedoms. Justice Alito dissented, stating that the respondents particularly targeted the petitioner and caused him emotional distress as evidenced by their using specific names in putting across their message.[Ibid.]
Case 2: ‘Fighting words’ doctrine
‘Fighting words’ describe a set of words and vocabulary that are either likely to inflict injury or incite other individuals to engage in violent acts. They are not protected by the First Amendment – freedom of speech – are categorized as unprotected speech. Other words in this category include obscenities and defamations. ‘Fighting words’ were first described by Justice Scalia of the Supreme Court in the Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U. S. 568 (1942) case.
Later cases found that the definition that had been ascribed to ‘Fighting words’ was very broad and limited in a lot of ways. When the Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949) case came before the Supreme Court, the judges determined that their earlier definition was impractical. In this case, Terminiello had been found guilty – by a lower court – for using ‘fighting wordsâ€&tr...
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