JHCBS Supreme Courts Majority Opinion On Land Use Case Study

You are a Supreme Court law clerk working for one of the nine Justices, who is traditionally the swing or moderate vote, on the U.S. Supreme Court. This means your Justice’s judicial philosophy or ideology is more centrist, sometimes joining the conservatives and sometimes joining the liberals on the Court on important decisions. Your Justice assigns you the task of drafting the opinion for the majority in the case presented below.

Please keep in mind as you prepare your draft for the Justice’s review, that their position is traditionally moderate as they represent the swing vote – or middle ground – of the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court. Four Justices tend to be much more conservative in their legal reasoning and four tend more toward liberal positions on legal issues. In the case below, you may assume that:

1) the Court has nine members
2) the Justice has gathered the support of at least four others in deciding the outcome of this case so they are writing for the majority.

Use:
1) the facts presented in the fact pattern below
2) what you know of the holdings and precedents of the cases covered in class – Erie, Euclid, Grendel’s Den, Berman, First Lutheran ,Nollan, Lucas, Dolan, Kelo and Knick 

Write a Majority Opinion deciding the case presented below. Please cite legal sources for the arguments made in your Opinion. 

Use the facts from the fictional Fact Pattern below as the basis for your draft Opinion. Do not include new facts but feel free to include any assumptions, including alternative assumptions, based on the facts of the case. The Fact Pattern is rather long with quite a bit of information. Its purpose is to illustrate what types of decisions are considered in a major real estate or land use BU.132.615.R1 – Real Estate Legal Environment – Fitzsimmons – Page 2 of 13 project and how the various issues and necessary approvals move through the regulatory and judicial process.

There is no right or wrong answer. A demonstrated understanding of the legal principles illustrated by the cases and the soundness of the arguments made will be the basis for evaluation along with the analysis, originality, appropriateness and clarity in making the arguments.

Draft a one-page dissent, briefly citing the above sources as appropriate.