CASE BRIEF

A case brief should be 1-2 pages. (250-500 words) The brief for each case should be submitted before the date on the work schedule. Be prepared to discuss your brief in class.

Facts: Summarize the facts of the case. List only the essential facts that you need to understand the holding and reasoning of the case.

Procedure: Most of the cases that you'll read in law school will be appellate court decisions. In this section, you want to list what happened in the lower court(s). Do not go into too much detail. One or two sentences are sufficient for this section.

Issue(s): What is/are the question(s) facing the court? Form the issue questions in a way that they can be answered by yes or no.

Holding: How did the court answer the issue question(s)? YES/NO?

Reasoning: This is the most important section of your case brief. Here you want to list the reasoning of the majority in reaching its decision. You can actually be quite detailed in this section. List what the law was before this case was decided and how the law has changed after this decision. Law professors love to discuss the reasoning of a case in class discussions.

Concurring/dissenting opinions: Even though I read the concurring and dissenting opinions, I rarely brief them. However, there are some cases (e.g. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer) where the concurring or dissenting opinions end up becoming more important than the majority's opinions. In such cases, you should add this section to your case brief.

Chapter 18 - North v. Russell and Nonlawyer Judges

Under Kentucky's two-tier court system, police courts (the first tier) have jurisdiction of misdemeanor cases, but an accused has an appeal of right from a police judge's decision to the circuit court (the second tier), where there is a trial de novo. The State Constitution requires cities in Kentucky to be classified according to population size. By statute judges of police courts in cities of less than a certain population need not be lawyers, but in larger cities they must be, and all circuit court judges are lawyers. In this challenge to the constitutionality of the statutory scheme held:
1. An accused, who is charged with a misdemeanor for which he is subject to possible imprisonment, is not denied due process when tried before a nonlawyer police court judge in one of the smaller cities, when a later trial de novo is available in the circuit court. Ward v. Village of Monroeville, 409 U.S. 57 ; Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510 , distinguished. Pp. 333-339.
2. Nor does the State deny such an accused equal protection of the laws by providing law-trained judges for some police courts and lay judges for others, depending upon the State Constitution's classification of cities according to population, since as long as all people within each classified area are treated equally, the different classifications within the court system are justified. Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U.S. 22 . Pp. 338-339.

The question presented in this case is whether an accused, subject to possible imprisonment, is denied due process when tried before a nonlawyer police court judge with a later trial de novo available under a State's two-tier court system; and whether a State denies equal protection by providing law-trained judges for some police courts and lay judges for others, depending upon the State Constitution's classification of cities according to population.

Appellant Lonnie North was arrested in Lynch, Ky., on July 10, 1974, and charged with driving while intoxicated in violation of Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. 189.520 (2) (1971). If a first offense, a penalty of a fine of from $100 to $500 is provided; if a subsequent offense, the same fine, and imprisonment for not more than six months. 1 Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. 189.990 (10) (a) (1971). [427 U.S. 328, 330]
Appellant's trial was scheduled for July 18, 1974, at 7 p. m., before the Lynch City Police Court. Appellee C. B. Russell, who is not a lawyer, was the presiding judge. Appellant's request for a jury was denied although under Kentucky law he was entitled to a jury trial. Ky. Const. 11; Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. 25.014, 26.400 (1971). Appellant pleaded not guilty. Appellant was found guilty and sentenced to 30 days in jail, a fine of $150, and revocation of his driver's license.

North v. Russell and the Nonlawyer Judges

The facts of the North v Russell (1976) highlight the long-standing issue confronting the American judiciary: Should lower courts judges be attorneys? That is the question that is being answered. Although judges in the major courts and appellate courts are required to be lawyers, many states impose no such requirement for lower court judges. Nonlawyer judges are more numbered than in usually realized (Bronstein 1981). A disproportionate number of this part time, nonlawyer judges are located in New York and Texas.

The US supreme court considered the question of nonlawyer judges. Chief Justice Warren Burger’s majority opinion argued that nonlawyer judges do not violate the due process law of the fourth Amendment, nor do they deny equal protection. He described the JP system as courts of convenience for citizens is small towns and spoke favorably of the fact that the inferior courts are simple and speedy. Burger argued that any defects in the proceeding could be corrected by the availability of defense attorneys, the right to a jury trial, and a trial de novo. Significantly, thought, these were the specific legal matters that judge Russell failed to inform defendant North about.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Potter Stewart stated the case for requiring judges to be lawyers. He found it constitutionally intolerable that nonlawyer’s judges can sentence defendant’s rights to a lawyer is eroded if the judge is not capable of understanding a lawyer’s argument on the law. Indeed, a later study found that lay judges in New York tented to be slight more favorable toward police officers and prosecutors than were legally trained officials.