(1) Carefully read the Briefs of Counsel and other materials; (2) Prepare an initial draft of an Opinion of the Court that states and justifies your decision and submit this.
All Justices should include the following components in their Opinions:
Syllabus: each Opinion should begin with a separate, half-page, single-spaced “brief” of the Opinion. It should: (a) very tersely summarize the facts of the case; (b) list the principal question(s) the opinion will address; (c) provide answers to the questions (yes or no); (d) summarize the reasoning the Opinion will employ.
Body of the Opinion: here you present your argument in 4-7 pages.
Table of Cases and Table of Other References: at the close of your opinion, you should append a Table of Cases and (if applicable) a Table of Other References. The Table of Cases should include: (a) an alphabetical listing of all cases cited in the Body of the Opinion (e.g., Lee v. Weisman (1992) ). The Table of Other References should include an alphabetical listing of other materials cited in the opinion (if any), such as essays, blog posts, articles or books.
