Model Supreme Court Cases

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Participants: YOU MUST REGISTER, be assigned a case and obtain the research materials packet before beginning work. Cases are assigned randomly so that we have roughly equal numbers of people arguing both sides of both cases. (In other words, you can request one case or the other, but we can't make guarantees as to cases or sides)

Click here for this year's cases.

Cases are posted on the internet for everyone's convenience.

When you sign up for the Model Supreme Court,, we mail your case to your advisor with copies of all necessary research materials you need to develop your brief. The cases you may use for research are listed with each case online, but due to copyright restrictions and other limitations, we cannot include the actual research materials on the web site.

Other model court programs: Our fact patterns are NOT copyrighted, so you are free to adapt our ideas to your own program. However, please observe the following three limits:

1. Please give credit for the hard work of our case authors if you adapt our ideas.
2. Remember that our cases are based on MONTANA law and our state Constitution, so you will have to modify the research materials (and possibly the fact pattern) to fit your own state's law.
3. Case law may not be current; some of our cases were based on issues pending before the Montana or U.S. Supreme Court at the time, and have since been decided one way or another. Get a lawyer to review materials before using them!

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Cases for this year:

Cases for 2004:

Montana Independent Trizette v. Rankin School District ("The Coach and Open Meeting Case")
--Case developed by Bob Brown, Attorney at Law, Butte, MT

Dagwood Bumpster v. Herbal Decor ("The Work Comp Case")
--Case developed by Brenda Wahler, with special thanks to Jay Dufrechou to technical assistance

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From the Legal Archives:

Click on the links below to see the text of the cases that were argued in past sessions:

2003:

Winchester v. Houlihan ("The Winchester case")
--Case developed by Brad Belke, Attroney at Law, Butte, MT. Edit and additional case law research by Brenda Wahler

Sturgis v. Dew Drop Inn and Moravian Country Sheriff's Dep't ("Harley's Case")
--Case developed by Brenda Wahler

2002:

State of Montana v. Bill Badguy ("The assault case")
--Case developed by Brad Newman, Deputy County Attorney, Butte, MT

Donald Dewey v. State of Montana, et. al. ("The Stream Access Case")
--Case Developed by Brenda Wahler, with special thanks to Professor Jack Tuholske, Missoula, MT, for technical assistance

2001:

Beartooth County School District v. Theerich ("The vandalism case")
--Case developed by Tom Singer, Billings, MT

Marino v. Grassland County Board of Education ("The Locker Room Prayer Case")
--Case Developed by Brenda Wahler, with special thanks to Clay Smith, Chris Tweeten, Lisa Mecklenberg Jackson, and Beth Brenneman for technical assistance

2000:

State of Montana v. Jane Creant ("The Drug Dog Case")
--Case developed by Mark Fowler

State of Montana v. Mark Daemon ("The Convenience Store Shooting case")
--Case Developed by Brenda Wahler, with special thanks to Tammy Pluebell, Mark Fowler, Lisa Mecklenberg, Lois Adams, Steve Bullock, Maria Roberts, and Greg Petesch for technical assistance.

1999:

State of Montana v. Fred Farmer ("The Marijuana Case")
--Case developed by Chris Tweeten

Towers v. Copper County Board of Education ("The Harassment Case")
--Case developed by Maria Roberts

1998:

State v. Key and Martin ("The Snowmobile Case")
--Case developed by Steve Bullock and Christine Wethern

Sadman v. Copper County High School Board of Education ("The Gun in School Case")
--Case developed by Christine Wethern and Geralyn Driscoll