Constitutional Law: Writing the Brief

Explains the difference between an appellate brief and a student brief, then gives tips on how to write a student brief.

LexisNexis

CUNY School of Law

ABA Journal

Explains the difference between a brief and legal memorandum. Describes how to write a courtroom legal memorandum and an internal legal memorandum.

Law360

The article offers suggestions for editing a legal brief to present clear and concise information in court. Topics include planning before writing and reviewing from peers for feedback, avoiding repetitions to prevent skipping of important information, and using quotations only when necessary. Other topics include elimination of unnecessary facts, dates and acronyms; and evaluation of the final draft to check presence of main points.

Cornell University Law School: Legal Information Institute

"A portal of Internet sources of interest to legal researchers. Includes sites offering the full texts of laws, regulations, and court decisions, along with commentary from lawyers writing primarily for other lawyers. Materials related to law and government that were written by or for lay persons also have been included, as have government sites that provide even quite general information about themselves or their agencies."

The Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality Tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.

American Bar Association: "This free search engine searches the free full-text of over 400 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and related publications such as Congressional Research Service reports."

Welcome to FindLaw's searchable database of U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1760. Supreme Court opinions are browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number, and are searchable by party name, case title, citation, full text and docket number. Some early cases from the court may not be available.

Opinions from 2009-present available online

As SCOTUSblog reported, “Lee v. Tam brings the world of rock music to the often quiet court.” It also implicates issues of intellectual property, racial slurs, and the First Amendment, and could have significant consequences for the NFL team in Washington, DC.

Supreme Court of the United States Blog

News about U.S. Supreme Court, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

The Supreme Court Database is the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Provides free, up-to-date information and media about the cases currently before the Supreme Court of the United States and those cases decided in the preceding term."