Law School Examinations: Understanding Legal Relationships and Constitutional Issues, Study notes of Law

Download Law School Examinations: Understanding Legal Relationships and Constitutional Issues and more Study notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! Page 1 EXAMPLE EXAMINATION INSTRUCTION AND QUESTIONS This handout is to be consulted, along with the outline of the lecture Taking Law School Examinations, while watching the video on “Taking Law School Examinations.” - 2 - Page 2 Civil Procedure I Larry Kramer Fall Semester, 1991 FINAL EXAMINATION 1. This is an open book examination; there are 11 pages, including this one. You may consult with any materials you wish. 2. You will be given 3 hours to complete the examination. There are 4 questions. You should allocate your time approximately as follows: Question I - 30 minutes Question II - 45 minutes Question III - 45 minutes Question IV - 60 minutes 3. Please read all questions carefully and make sure you understand the facts before you begin answering. Write legibly and be as concise as possible. 4. Deal with all the issues raised even if you believe the disposition of any one of them is controlling. If there are ambiguities in the facts, make whatever assumptions are necessary to resolve an issue; if additional facts are needed, state what these facts are and why they are needed. 5. In answering any question, you should not feel bound by anything you have said in answering an earlier question. 6. Good luck and have a nice vacation. - 5 - Page 5 TYPE A, cont’d Barbara Fields writes (see pp.103-4 of the supplemental course materials): [R}ace is neither biology nor an idea absorbed into biology by Lamarckian inheritance. It is ideology, and ideologies do not have lives of their own. Nor can they be handed down or inherited: a doctrine can be, or a bane, or a piece of property, but not an ideology. If race lives on today, it does not live on because we have inherited it from our forebears of the seventeenth century or the eighteenth or nineteenth, but because we continue to create it today… Those who create and recreate race today are not just the mob that killed a young Afro-American man on a street in Brooklyn or the people who join the Klan and White Order. They are also those academic writers whose invocation of self- propelling ‘attitudes’ and tragic flaws assign Africans and their descendants to a special category, placing them in a world exclusively theirs and outside history—a form of intellectual apartheid no less ugly or oppressive, despite its righteous (not to say self-righteous) trappings, than that practiced by the bio- and theo-racists; and for which the victims, like slaves of old, are expected to be grateful. They are the academic ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ in whose version of race the neutral shibboleths difference and diversity replace words like slavery, injustice, oppression and exploitation, diverting attention from the anything-but-neutral history these words denote. They are also the Supreme Court and spokesmen for affirmative action, unable to promote or even define justice except by enhancing the authority and prestige of race… Do you agree or disagree with Fields? Why or why not? Make sure that you make clear what you think Fields is saying in the quoted paragraph. - 6 - Page 6 TYPE B Question 3 Responding to the perception that public schools are failing to educate black males and that black males in turn are experiencing difficulties of crisis magnitude, many school systems, among them some that are majority black and some that are majority white, have initiated “immersion schools” specifically for black makes. These public schools stress Afrocentric curricula. Identify any constitutional issues presented by the establishment of these schools and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments made supporting or attacking the constitutionality of such schools. …………………………………………………………………………………………… Welfare Law, Fall 1991 Question 2 (30 points) Should Congress amend Title IV of the Social Security Act to provide that states may no longer set payment standards lower than their need standards? (A state’s flexibility in selecting a need standard would be unchanged from current law.) Discuss the various implications of such an amendment, present arguments for and against, pick a side and defend your choice. - 7 - Page 7 TYPE C * * * * * Question Two * * * * * (Suggested Time: 1 1/2 hours) Hutchins City is a community that is deeply divided over the abortion issue. The local Planned Parenthood clinic, which has been providing pregnancy counseling services and performing abortions since 1973, has been the target of sporadic protests by right-to-life organizations over the years. A Hutchins City ordinance provides that picketers at a place of business must stay on the public sidewalks, must keep moving at all times and may not prevent members of the public from entering a building. In January of this year a local right-to-life leader, Art, was elected Chief of Police of Hutchins City by a narrow margin. Since Art’s election the protesters have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to dissuade patients from entering the clinic as police intervention has declined. This summer local demonstrators have been joined by the right-to-life activists from around the country in picketing the clinic. Planned Parenthood obtained a court order directing the Hutchins City police department to enforce the local ordinance in June. Since that time, a single police officer has been at the clinic during demonstrations to admonish the demonstrators to obey the statute. The demonstrators have developed a technique of standing close to each other on the sidewalk directly in front of the clinic entrance and taking tiny “baby steps” to keep moving in order to comply with the statute while still making their presence as conspicuous as possible to those who would enter the building. On July 1, Belinda learned that she was approximately 8 weeks pregnant. Belinda, a recovering alcoholic, already had a two-year old child who suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and feared that the stress of another pregnancy might lead her to start drinking again. She decided to go to the Hutchins City Planned Parenthood Clinic for counseling on July 15. There she was greeted - 10 - Page 10 5) Health care is a right, not a privilege. 6) A mandatory employee –sponsored National Health Care Insurance System promotes employee morale, reduces labor unrest, and has beneficial effects on national commerce. The legislation provides that every private employer of fifteen or more persons must provide health care insurance. Congress specifically delegated to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the task of establishing the minimum adequate coverage required under the Act and promulgating regulations for its implementation, with the proviso that a joint House and Senate committee would have the power to void or modify the HHS minimum standard or regulations if after hearings on the matter the committee determines them to be inadequate. Private employers with fewer than 15 employees are not required to provide health insurance. The NHCA requires federal, state and local governments to provide health care insurance for all of their respective employees pursuant to the standards established by HHS. - 11 - Page 11 In devising its standards and promulgating regulations, HHS prohibits the use of any health care insurance provided as a result of the NHCA for any abortion-related medical services, including counseling. Numerous suits are filed challenging the constitutionality of the NHCA of 1991 and its implementing regulations. Among the plaintiffs are several states, taxpayers, private employers, unemployed persons, individuals working for employers with less than 15 employees, and pro-choice advocates challenging the abortion restrictions. Identify all potential constitutional claims on behalf of each category of plaintiffs and fully discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each claim. - 12 - Page 12 TYPE D Contracts. Section 1 (Prof. Frier) Final Examination, page 1 17 December 1991, 8:30 – 12:00 1. The Toy Market (Thirty Minutes) Diana Diode is a sales representative for Allied Products, which manufactures and sells electronic games to large independent toy stores in a multi-state region. Diode solicits her business through contact with store proprietors. On September 15, 1991, Diode met with Chip Carter, owner and manager of the Toy Market in Hutchins City; Carter had occasionally purchased from Allied Products over the past four years. After discussion, Carter agreed to a large order of carious hand-held electronic games, in expectation of heavy business during the upcoming holiday season since all the games were in great demand. Diode listed the ordered items on a form provided by Allied Products, and she then had Carter sign the order form, a copy of which she left with him. On its face, the order form stated in large type that: “Allied Products is not bound until this order has been accepted at its home office. Our sales representative has no authority to bind us to an order. All orders are irrevocable.” A month and a half later, Carter, who had become concerned that none of his order had arrived yet, called Allied Products’ home office to inquire when delivery would begin; he was informed that his order had not been accepted because of a substantial rise in market price after the order’s submission. Carter, who is outraged at what he considers Allied Product’s cavalier treatment of a customer, seeks your advice. He tells you that he has been forced to buy equivalent goods from another supplier, for $2,000 more than if Allied Products had delivered as promised. He says: “The money is important, of course. But I’ve been had. I don’t want to let them get away with this. What can I do? They were obligated to deliver weren’t they?” What advice do you give to Carter? What steps, if any, would you take on his behalf? Why?