Delegation Resource Manual: Judicial Manual
Page 102
YMCA PA Youth & Government Program
encouraged to perform their own research in preparing briefs. A team is more likely to obtain a
better score if the brief reflects additional, independent research.
New this year: all briefs will be written through our brief wizard on our website. The
following will walk you through the step-by-step process in writing your brief and utilizing our
Online Brief Submission System.
Step 1 - Login: When you login to the system the first time, you will enter your e-mail address and
create a password for the brief. After you login once and saved information, you will be able to just
login using the existing user side of the system.
Step 2 – Attorney Entry: After you login the first time, the system will ask you to select your club
name from a dropdown menu and your case assignment. Once your club name has been selected,
you will pull down the dropdown menu next to attorney names and find your names. Note: If you do
not see your or your partner’s name listed, it means your advisor has not registered you as an attorney in the advisor
registration system. You will need to be in the system as an attorney to see your name in this window.
Step 3 – Questions, Answers, and Arguments: Section 3 is the bulk of the brief. On this page,
you will enter the question for the Court to consider, provide the suggested answer of Yes or No,
and then provide your argument. Although the formatted brief will have the body of the argument
on a separate page, the brief wizard has put it on one page so you can continue to review your
question as you answer it.
Your question presented should state the Issue that is presented in this matter. The Issue
should be the fact specific question that poses a question in a light most favorable for your position.
Fact specific means that you state relevant facts from your factual summary in your issue, as well as
the question of law. When stating the issue, separate it from the body of the argument in some
fashion, such as indenting it and making it single space.
For the examples in this section, the factual event is the same. A high school teacher has
prayer at the beginning of each homeroom. However, the manner in which the question is phrased
suggests an answer to the reader of either yes or no. The issue is your opportunity to phrase the
question how it benefits you the most
1. Does a public high school violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution where
a high school teacher, in an exercise of his personal religious belief, compels his students to
participate in a morning prayer each day before school? -- OR --
2. Is it proper for one to exercise his constitutional right to freedom of religion where he provides a
prayer at the beginning of each school day, but where there is no evidence of any type of
compulsion to participate should a student choose not to pray?
After you draft a question, and provide the Yes/No answer, you will draft an argument for
that question. The first part of this process is setting forth the Rule. The Rule is a proposed
statement of the law that you are arguing governs the facts of the case. It is typically one sentence.
With the Rule you are answering the question that you posed in the Issue, with a favorable result to
your case, of course.
The Rule relevant to the above Issues could be:
