Description
U.S. Supreme Court Case Essay
1. The following presentation is intended to help students complete the Supreme Court case essay assignment for Criminal Law.
2. Choose a Supreme Court case that interests you. You may choose any case on a criminal law topic heard by the Supreme Court of the United States to research and write an essay about it. However, please choose a case that was heard by the Supreme Court from 2009 to the present. Again, please do not choose a case that is older than 2009. This will help ensure that you are writing your essay on current, relevant case law. One example is Birchfield v. North Dakota, 579 U.S. ____ (2016) but there are hundreds more!
3. Research the details about the case (answer the 5 research questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why). Take notes about what you discover. Note the sources of your information. You must list your sources at the end of the essay in BlueBook or APA citation format, use proper footnotes in Bluebook format throughout the essay or you may use in-text citation if you are using APA,, and properly cite the sources of each piece of information in the essay itself. For details on how to do this, please review the Legal Studies Program Writing Guide in the APUS Library. Of course you can also use the Bluebook, and you may ask your professor for assistance as required.
4. After researching a case, organize the information you have collected by making an outline. A basic structure for organizing your information might be as follows:
A. Introduction:
1. Identify the name of the case and when it was heard before SCOTUS.
2. Identify the parties involved in the case.
3. Briefly describe the focus of the case.
B. Describe the case itself: What was the controversy in the case?
C. How did the case move through the courts before reaching SCOTUS?
1. What court had original jurisdiction in the case?
2. How had previous courts ruled in the case?
D. What did the Supreme Court rule in the case?
1. What was the argument of the majority opinion?
2. What was the argument of the minority opinion?
E. What was the reasoning used by the Supreme Court to reach its decision? How did it reach its decision?
F. Conclusion: How does the Court's ruling in the case affect Americans today?
1. Has the Court's ruling in the case affected other rulings in other cases?
2. Has the Court's ruling affected the interpretation and enforcement of any particular laws, and how those laws are enforced?
3. If applicable: Has the Court's ruling in this case affected you, or someone you know, personally?
5. Write your essay. If you organized your information based on the suggested outline, then all you have to do is write down what you have learned from your research, and put it into a footnoted two to three page essay. Your first paragraph is the introduction (the information under letter A of your outline). The second paragraph is the information under letter B, and so on. Please note that you may also create your essay as a power point. Though, please convert it into a PDF when you submit it for grading. Turnitin doesn't accept Microsoft PowerPoint so if you need to submit work in this format, e.g. a presentation, you must convert your files to PDF first.
6. Sources: Be sure to cite your sources, using sequentially numbered footnotes. That means any information you learned from another source, such as a website, a magazine article, a videotaped interview etc., must be properly noted in your essay. Make sure you use footnotes in proper BlueBook or APA citation style. Footnotes appear at the bottom of EACH page, not at the end of the document (those are endnotes). If you have questions about citations, ask your instructor prior to turning in the assignment.
GREER v. UNITED STATES
References
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/19-8709.html
https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/greer-v-united-states/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/18-12963/18-12963-2020-01-08.html
Explanation & Answer
View attached explanation and answer. Let me know if you have any questions.
Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE
1
Institution
GREER V. UNITED STATES
FELONY FIREARM POSSESSION
Name
Course
Tutor
Date
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
2
Greer v. United States
Introduction
The name of the case is Greer v. United States and was heard by the Supreme Court
Justices on Apr 20 2021, with Gregory Greer as the petitioner in the case and the United States
as the respondent.1 The focus of the case was on whether the Federal Court of appeal reviewing
the lower court’s “plain error” verdict can look into the matters that are not in the trial record and
consider them in the determination of whether the error substantially affected the rights of the
defendant, or affected the public reputation, integrity and fairness of the trial process. The
SCOTUS was faced with the task of determining whether the argument made by the defendant
was sufficient to grant him plain error relief. The appellate review of a ruling or the failure of a
judge to make a ruling on a matter when the appealing party failed to give the Court at trial a
chance that was good enough for them to make the right decision is governed by the plain error
standard of review. One can only be granted plain error relief if he shows evidence to indicate
that the plain error affected his substantial rights which means he must prove that the error was
prejudicial, or that it had a significant effect on the outcome of the proceedings of the lower
Court.2 Also, the appellate Court is required to correct the plain errors that the petitioner may not
have addressed to maintain the reputation and integrity of the courts. Therefore, Gregory Greer,
the petitioner, in this case, has to prove all the elements that show the existence of a plain error
for him to be granted the relief that he is seeking in that case. Relying on this standard, Greer has
to show that the District Court erred, and if it had properly instructed the jury on the element of
mens rea, there is a reasonable possibility that he may have ended up being acquitted for the
1
2
Greer v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 2090, 593 U.S., 210 L. Ed. 2d 121 (2021)
Plain Error, Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plain_error. (Last visited Feb 16, 2022).
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3
possession offence that he had been charged for.3Therefore, the focus of this case is on the
question of “plain error” and whether the petitioner can prove the required elements to be
granted the relief he is seeking.
Case Description
After being arrested in 2017, Gregory Greer was convicted in 2018 for the felony of
possessing a firearm which was against the United States Code, Title 18, which deals with
criminal procedure and federal crimes.4The argument by Greer was that at the time when he was
arrested for allegedly being in possession, he had no authorization to possess or own a firearm
because he had already been convicted for a punishable felony. Greer had been convicted of
multiple felonies before his arrest on the charge of possession of a stolen firearm, including
fleeing from a police officer, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, P.C.P. distribution,
escape and possessing a controlled substance. This caused the jury at the district court to instruct
the prosecution to ensure that they prove beyond reasonable doubt that Greer knowingly
possessed the firearm and that before that time, he had been convicted for a felony which was
subject to imprisonment for more than one year and the Court established that he was guilty.5
Greer went ahead and filed an appeal contesting the district court's decision. He based his appeal
on the decision in the case of Rehaif v. the United States concerning the plain error review and
the elements that constituted a plain error in a trial process.6His request was th...
Review
Review
