Legal Eagle Moms or Married to One?

I only took one law class for fun. Yes I have a very strange definition of fun. It was taxation. Every case we studied was a supreme court ruling because they define law. Obviously we only studied cases which defined tax law.

I am trying and failing to remember the class structure and off the top of my head I saw no courses specific to supreme court cases or military court cases.

Anyway every case in our text was a supreme court ruling we only used other cases to strengthen our arguments.

It depends on the class. For many areas of law, the Supreme Court cases define the law, so they're the cases studied. But for other types of law, the history based on British common law is really important and Supreme Court cases aren't studied much. Plus, stuff like criminal law is based on the laws of each state, so SC cases aren't relevant. The circuit courts can also define law (especially if the SC declines to hear the case) so there's a fair amount of studying that too.

There weren't any classes solely about the Supreme Court - classes are organized around the type of law (Tax Law, Family Law, Real Property, Criminal Law, etc.). Then within each class, if SC cases were relevant, there would be a lot of emphasis. But for those that didn't need SC cases, no emphasis. I can't really guestimate how much time was spent on the Supreme Court because it really didn't break out that way.

No, it doesn't work quite like that. You learn how the laws work (the hierarchy of case law, levels of court, legislation, regulations etc) when to use which one, how to argue the cases, how to identify which laws apply etc. You also learn subject areas (contracts, torts, criminal law, trusts, corporations, corporate transactions, insurance, family etc) and to learn each subject you will study the applicable laws (legislation, cases etc), including the applicable Supreme Court cases. A really simple way of describing it is to look at the legislation and then find the highest level of court case that interprets or uses that legislation. There will be lots of cases on a particular area and then try to find the ones that are closest to the facts in your case. In doing this, you will be looking at Supreme Court cases, too. Some areas have lots of Supreme Court cases, like civil rights issues. So, in answer to your question, no, Supreme Court cases don't typically make up a class. They are interspersed throughout all your law school classes.

I hope that overview helps.

First of all, there are two different Supreme Court's. There is your State Supreme Court and then there is the Federal Supreme Court. You don't distinguish which you are referring to.

You don't have a class entitled Supreme Court cases. You study areas of law and the cases that helped to shape those laws. Some are Supreme Court cases, some are appellate cases.

Everly says that SC cases are not applicable to criminal law; that is not true. The Supreme Court of California hears criminal cases and the United States Supreme Court also hears federal criminal cases.