Here's how I might write up a brief on the case:
Citation. Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Ga.
Facts. Here I'd put the stuff about how Carl and Elaine Miles did their thing in downtown Augusta, getting the cat to talk and hitting people up for contributions. Maybe 3-4 sentences. Not much more than that.
Law. Here I'd say they were charged with violating the city's occupation tax ordinance, specifically by making money off of Blackie when they didn't have a business license. I'd also say they tried to raise a freedom of speech issue.
Issue. Did the First Amendment apply? Did the Miles' need a business license?
Holding? No. Yes. Decision for plaintiff.
Reasoning Summarize the judge's reasons for holding that way. Does a cat have First Amendment rights? I'd quote where he says the rights of free speech and association weren't involved. And I'd quote what he says about how: (1) they made money off of the cat; and (2) the ordinance taxes people who earn money from a list of occupations plus anything "not specifically mentioned."
A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.
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- COM 209: How do news values make news news(worthy)?
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- COM 209, 150: Blogging Iraq to Alaska
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- Gatekeeping theory link
- COM 150 -- in-class Monday
- White House 'spin' testimony -- COM 150, 209, 317
- COM 150 -- today's in-class journal
- How would you explain Libby to a kid?
- Libby trial / COM 317, 209, 150 assignment
- COMM317 -- Zenger case
- COM317: Blackie the Talking Cat
- This just in -- blogs and AP style
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- Chief Illiniwek
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About Me
- Pete
- Springfield (Ill.), United States
- I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.
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