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TVR31200 Hit Man Hypo Paladin v. Rice |
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Chapter One:
Vivian Rice (plaintiff), et al. filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Paladin Enterprises (defendant), a book publishing company. The lawsuit arose out of a triple murder committed by convicted killer, James Perry. Prior to the murder, Perry purchased two books from the defendant: Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors ("Hit Man") and How to Make a Disposable Silencer, Vol. II ("Silencers"). The defendant argued in federal district court that Palidin Enterprises cannot be held liable for damages because of the First Amendment right to publish the books that are not legally obscene, libelous or meet the legal standard for incitment. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendant in 1996.
Chapter Two:
Rice appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court reversed the district court decision and remanded the decision for trial.
Chapter Three:
Paladin appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The Court has granted cert. to rule on the First Amendment claims only. Oral arguments are scheduled for the date noted in your course schedule. At the time of oral arguments, both parties will submit copies of the written brief to all court members. Copies of each team's brief must be emailed to me before class (as an .doc). Additionally, the parties will submit a copy of the written brief and a copy of the text/outline of the oral argument to the Clerk. The appellants and appellees will each have 20 minutes to present their arguments before the Supreme Court. There will be five minute rebuttals for each team. The Court may ask questions as desired.
Chapter Four:
The Court will render their written opinion on the date noted in the course schedule.
Specific instructions for each team can be found at the
following links:
Supreme Court instructions
Rice Legal Team instructions
Paladin Enterprises Legal Team instructions
Journalists' instructions
Text of the "Hitman" book can currently be found at http://ftp.die.net/mirror/hitman/
Contact:Dr.
C.
URL- http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/ncornwell/312/312hitmanhypo.html
Revised-Aug. , 2009