Module F
How to read a court syllabus
Caption, year, question, holding, and what the case does not decide.
How we teach a case: caption, year, facts, question, holding, what it does not decide, why a student should care, official link.
A constitution is not a statute. A statute is not a case. A holding is not a comment a judge made along the way.
Primary sources first. If you cannot state the holding in one sentence, you are not done reading.
Check questions
1. What is a holding?
2. What comes first: a news recap or the opinion?
3. Does a trial court bind the whole country?
4. When are you done reading?
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