Learning Exercise

Learning Assessment: Students must provide the correct information and draw logical conclusions. The assignment is to determine the significance of U.S. Supreme Court cases to California businesses. The Procedure: Use the problem below as an example. Background: The U.S. Supreme Court issues approximately 75-100 written decisions a year explaining their reasoning in an 'opinion.' It is important for you to be able to find a Supreme Court cases on the Internet because you will not usually have access to recent court materials in a library or office. Directions: Using a web browser of your choice find a website which reports (provides the text of) current Supreme Court cases. Use a search engine at the website to find cases in 1999 that dealo with state immunity from suit by its citizens (somemtimes called "sovereign immunity"). Hint: First try a search engine to find the website. If you have no success, please access my webpage after midnight on Saturday for further directions. Cases may be quite long so plan to draw your synopsis from the summary of the case in the headnotes of each case. You may want to read one or more cases to answer the fifth requirement, but it is not necessary to read everything to answer the fifth requirement. Hint: The 'dissents' in cases often point out the weaknesses and problems with the majority decision. Required: 1. List the keywords that were most useful in getting to an appropriate website. 2. List the website address(es) of the appropriate website. 3. List the names of all the cases together with a two- or three-sentence synopsis of each decision. 4. List the Justices who supported the majority decision in each case. 5. Explain the significance of these decisions to businesses in California. For example, explain how the cases might make it less or more expensive to do business?