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Supreme Court of the United States
1 First St NE, Washington D.C. 20543 |
Supreme Court Library
The United States Supreme Court has established a public institution of the court, known as the Supreme Court Library. The purpose of this library is to maintain accessibility and to support both legal practitioners and Justices to view past judgments, precedents, and legal norms and conventions. Cases and judgments may be collated and presented in this library, along with relevant citations and references.
Legal InterpretationLegal interpretations are, in effect, the Supreme Court's views of a law. This can include legal debate on how constitutional a law is. As it pertains to a constitutional issue, the Supreme Court may invalidate any lower statute or ruling, should it be inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States - the ultimate law of the land. Other responsibilities of the Supreme Court with regard to interpretation primarily relate to how a law is enforced, and to what effect.
CasesPast decisions of the Supreme Court are important to view and reference when developing a legal argument or providing legal advice. These provide precedent and a basis on which to mount an argument. For reference, the abbreviation SCR stands for Supreme Court Ruling.| YEAR TBA |
Formulating Legal ArgumentsUnderstanding how to write a proper legal argument is challenging for newcomers to the legal system. An essential and basic methodology by which to structure and formulate your argument is provided as a reference, known as I.B.A.C.- I - Issue: What issue are you prosecuting? The issue should be communicated in the form of a subject, heading and a paragraph.
- B - Basis: What statute, case or other applicable legal principle is being relied upon to support your argument? Is it from the Constitution, the U.S. Code, or perhaps a past ruling by the Supreme Court? To effectively incorporate your basis into your argument, use the full citation or pinpoint which statute you are referring to. For instance, SCOTUS judgments are written in paragraph numbers [1]. refers to paragraph 1, while [999]. would refer to paragraph 999. A hyphen between paragraph numbers refers to all the paragraphs in between the two cited, inclusive. For instance: "see United States vs. X [2017] SCR 20251102 [6]-[9] (Patterson R).
- A - Application: How does this basis apply in the current context and how should it be applied? Provide a practical example of what should have happened or not happened.
- C - Conclusion: End with a summation that reiterates your main points. Think of it almost like an executive summary, but at the end instead of the start.
OOC NOTICE: This is not intended as legal advice, only as a guide to improve both written English and roleplay skills. This advice only applies within Savline Roleplay's in-character legal system.