Idaho Bar cheat sheet

Subject-matter jurisdiction: federal question under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 requires a federal claim on the face of a well-pleaded complaint; diversity under § 1332 requires complete diversity plus an amount in controversy exceeding $75,000, excluding interest and costs.

Supplemental jurisdiction (§ 1367) reaches claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact with a claim that independently satisfies § 1331 or § 1332; it is discretionary and unavailable when the federal claim is dismissed before trial or when § 1367(b) would undercut diversity limits.

Personal jurisdiction: general jurisdiction exists where the defendant is at home (incorporation state and principal place of business for a corporation); specific jurisdiction requires purposeful availment, relatedness, and reasonableness under the fair-play and substantial-justice standard.

Venue under § 1391 lies where any defendant resides if all reside in the same state, where a substantial part of the events or omissions occurred, or where any defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction if no other district qualifies.

Erie doctrine: federal procedural rules and statutes govern under the Supremacy Clause; in the absence of a federal rule, federal courts apply state substantive law and balance forum shopping against inequitable administration of the laws.

Pleadings require a short and plain statement of the claim showing entitlement to relief; fraud and mistake must be pleaded with particularity under Rule 9(b); a defendant must respond within 21 days of service (60 days if service was waived).

Discovery scope under Rule 26(b)(1) is any nonprivileged matter relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case; work product receives qualified protection under Rule 26(b)(3).

Summary judgment under Rule 56 is granted when no genuine dispute of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the nonmovant receives all reasonable inferences, and Celotex permits judgment where the nonmovant fails to establish an element on which it bears the burden.

Claim preclusion requires a final judgment on the merits, identity of parties or privies, and the same claim; issue preclusion requires actual litigation and determination of the issue, which was essential to the judgment, against a party with a full and fair opportunity to litigate.

Judicial review under Marbury v. Madison permits courts to invalidate legislative acts repugnant to the Constitution; standing requires injury in fact, causation, and redressability, and third-party standing is disfavored absent a close relationship and a hindrance to the rightholder's own assertion.

Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause activities that substantially affect interstate commerce, including intrastate activity that is economic in nature and part of a broader regulatory scheme; the Necessary and Proper Clause supports means rationally related to a legitimate enumerated end.

State regulation of interstate commerce violates the dormant Commerce Clause when it discriminates against out-of-state interests without a legitimate local purpose that cannot be served by reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives, or when burdens clearly exceed local benefits.

State action doctrine: the Fourteenth Amendment reaches private conduct only when there is significant state involvement, such as a public function, entanglement, or joint action; purely private discrimination is not unconstitutional.

Equal protection tiers: strict scrutiny (suspect classes, fundamental rights) requires a compelling interest and narrow tailoring; intermediate scrutiny (sex, illegitimacy) requires an exceedingly persuasive justification and substantial relation; rational basis requires only a legitimate purpose and rational means.

Due process: procedural due process under Mathews v. Eldridge balances the private interest, the risk of erroneous deprivation, and the government's interest; substantive due process protects fundamental liberties such as marriage, procreation, and parental rights.

First Amendment speech: content-based restrictions receive strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, and manner rules must be narrowly tailored to a significant government interest and leave open ample alternative channels; prior restraints carry a heavy presumption of invalidity.

Establishment Clause under Lemon and its progeny prohibits government action lacking a secular purpose, having the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, or creating excessive entanglement; coercion of religious observance is a key modern touchstone.

Presidential power varies with congressional action: maximum where the President acts with express or implied authorization, a zone of twilight absent congressional direction, and minimum where acting contrary to congressional will; executive privilege is qualified and yields to a demonstrated specific need in criminal proceedings.

Formation requires mutual assent (offer and acceptance) and consideration, or a substitute such as promissory estoppel, detrimental reliance, or a sealed instrument where recognized; the objective theory of assent governs over unexpressed intent.

Under UCC § 2-207, a definite and seasonable expression of acceptance operates as an acceptance even if it states additional or different terms, unless it is expressly made conditional on assent to those terms; merchants' additional terms enter the contract unless they materially alter it or are objected to.

Statute of frauds categories: marriage, year, land, executor, surety, and sale of goods over $500; the UCC merchant's confirmatory memorandum under § 2-201(b) binds a merchant who fails to object within 10 days of receiving a signed writing.

Parol evidence rule bars prior or contemporaneous oral or written terms that contradict a fully integrated writing; it does not bar evidence of formation defects, conditions precedent, or interpretation of ambiguity, and the UCC permits course of performance, course of dealing, and usage of trade.

Material breach discharges the nonbreaching party's remaining duties; substantial performance permits recovery minus damages for minor deviations; perfect tender under UCC § 2-601 allows rejection of goods failing in any respect unless cured under § 2-508.

Anticipatory repudiation occurs when a party clearly indicates it will not perform before the time due, giving the nonbreaching party an immediate claim and the right to await performance; adequate assurance may be demanded under UCC § 2-609.

Expectation damages place the nonbreaching party in the position performance would have produced; consequential damages require foreseeability under Hadley v. Baxendale and reasonable certainty; liquidated damages are enforceable if reasonable in light of anticipated or actual loss and difficult to estimate.

Specific performance is available for unique goods and land when damages are inadequate; the UCC permits specific performance where goods are unique or in other proper circumstances, and the remedy is discretionary with the court.

Impracticability discharges a duty when an event makes performance impracticable without the party's fault and nonoccurrence was a basic assumption; impracticability requires more than increased cost, and frustration of purpose requires the principal purpose be substantially frustrated.

Common law murder is unlawful killing with malice aforethought, shown by intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to life (depraved heart), or felony murder; first-degree murder typically requires premeditation and deliberation or felony murder.

Voluntary manslaughter requires adequate provocation that would arouse sudden passion in a reasonable person, with no cooling time; involuntary manslaughter requires criminal negligence or misdemeanor manslaughter.

Felony murder limits: the felony must be independent of the killing (BARRK felonies-burglary, arson, rape, robbery, kidnapping), the death must be foreseeable, and agency or proximate cause theories determine liability for co-felons' acts.

Mens rea levels under the Model Penal Code are purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently; recklessness requires conscious disregard of a substantial unjustifiable risk, while negligence requires a gross deviation from the reasonable person standard.

Accomplice liability attaches to a person who aids, abets, or encourages with the intent to facilitate the crime, and extends to crimes that are the natural and probable consequence of the intended crime; mere presence or knowledge is insufficient.

Attempt requires specific intent to commit the target crime plus a substantial step beyond mere preparation; legal impossibility is a defense while factual impossibility generally is not; abandonment must be fully voluntary and complete.

Fourth Amendment: a warrant requires probable cause and particularity; exceptions include search incident to arrest, automobile, plain view, consent, exigent circumstances, and Terry stop-and-frisk on reasonable suspicion; the exclusionary rule bars evidence obtained in violation but permits good-faith reliance on a warrant.

Fifth Amendment: Miranda warnings are required before custodial interrogation; the right is invoked by unambiguous request and may be waived knowingly and voluntarily; double jeopardy bars retrial after acquittal or conviction and bars successive prosecution by the same sovereign.

Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy and public trial, jury trial for serious offenses, confrontation of witnesses, compulsory process, and effective assistance of counsel measured by the Strickland performance and prejudice prongs.

Relevance under Rules 401-403: evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable and the fact is of consequence; relevant evidence may be excluded if probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, or waste of time.

Character evidence is inadmissible to prove conduct in a civil case or in a criminal case except for the accused's pertinent trait, the victim's trait (including self-defense), or impeachment; habit evidence is admissible to prove conduct in conformity therewith.

Prior bad acts under Rule 404(b) are admissible for non-propensity purposes such as motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident; the prosecution must give reasonable pretrial notice in criminal cases.

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted; party-opponent statements under Rule 801(d)(2) are nonhearsay, and statements for their effect on the listener, verbal acts, and impeachment are also nonhearsay uses.

Firmly rooted hearsay exceptions include present sense impression, excited utterance, then-existing mental, emotional, or physical condition, statements for medical diagnosis or treatment, recorded recollection, and business records; the residual exception under Rule 807 requires equivalent guarantees of trustworthiness.

Confrontation Clause under Crawford bars testimonial hearsay absent unavailability and a prior opportunity for cross-examination; ongoing emergency statements to police are typically nontestimonial under Davis v. Washington.

Impeachment methods include prior inconsistent statements (under oath at a proceeding are substantive under Rule 801(d)(1)(A)), bias, sensory or mental capacity, contradiction, and character for truthfulness; extrinsic evidence of prior inconsistent statements requires an opportunity to explain.

Privileges: attorney-client protects confidential communications for legal advice and survives termination of the relationship; spousal privilege includes the confidential marital communications privilege and the testimonial privilege, which generally belongs to the witness spouse.

Burden of proof: the prosecution bears the burden of proving every element beyond a reasonable doubt under In re Winship; presumptions under Rule 301 shift only the burden of production, and permissive presumptions must satisfy the rational connection test.

Negligence elements are duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages; duty is owed to foreseeable plaintiffs under Palsgraf, and the standard of care is that of a reasonable person of like age, intelligence, and experience, with a child standard for minors engaged in age-appropriate activity.

Premises liability: trespassers receive only a duty to refrain from willful or wanton harm; licensees must be warned of known concealed dangers; invitees must be protected from known and reasonably discoverable hazards with reasonable inspection.

Strict products liability requires a defective product, a defect existing when it left the defendant's control, and causation of harm; defect theories are manufacturing, design (risk-utility), and failure to warn; under Restatement Third, the plaintiff must show a foreseeable risk of harm and a reasonable alternative.

Res ipsa loquitur permits an inference of negligence when the accident is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur absent negligence, caused by an instrumentality in the defendant's exclusive control, and not attributable to the plaintiff.

Defenses: contributory negligence is a complete bar in the few jurisdictions retaining it; comparative negligence reduces recovery proportionally, with modified versions barring recovery above 50 or 51 percent; assumption of risk requires actual knowledge and voluntary acceptance.

Intentional torts require intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact or apprehension; battery requires harmful or offensive contact, assault requires apprehension of imminent contact, and false imprisonment requires confinement within boundaries without consent or legal authority.

Defamation requires a defamatory statement of and concerning the plaintiff, publication to a third party, and resulting harm; public figures must prove actual malice (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard) under New York Times v. Sullivan, and private plaintiffs on matters of public concern must prove fault for presumed or punitive damages.

Nuisance: private nuisance is a substantial and unreasonable interference with another's use and enjoyment of land, balanced by the utility of the conduct and the gravity of harm; public nuisance affects a community right and is generally enforced by public officials.

Damages in tort include compensatory (economic and noneconomic), nominal, and punitive; punitive damages require willful, wanton, or malicious conduct and are subject to due process proportionality review under State Farm v. Campbell.

Estates: fee simple absolute is alienable, devisable, and inheritable; fee tail and life estates are less-than-fee interests; a life tenant has the duty not to commit waste and may exploit natural resources only to the extent necessary for ordinary use.

Concurrent estates: joint tenancy requires the four unities (time, title, interest, and possession) and the right of survivorship, severed by conveyance, mortgage in title theory states, or agreement; tenancy in common has no survivorship and no unity requirement.

Landlord-tenant: covenants include quiet enjoyment, implied warranty of habitability (residential), and the covenant to pay rent; constructive eviction requires substantial interference, notice, and vacating within a reasonable time.

Easements: express easements require a writing satisfying the Statute of Frauds; easements by implication arise from prior use that is apparent, continuous, and reasonably necessary; prescriptive easements require open, notorious, adverse, continuous use for the statutory period; easements in gross are not transferable unless commercial.

Covenants running with the land require writing, intent, touch and concern, notice, and horizontal and vertical privity; equitable servitudes require intent, touch and concern, and notice, and are enforced by injunction; the changed circumstances doctrine may terminate them.

Recording acts: race statutes protect the first to record; notice statutes protect a subsequent purchaser without notice; race-notice statutes protect a subsequent purchaser without notice who records first; shelter rule protects a transferee from a protected purchaser.

Adverse possession requires actual, exclusive, continuous, open and notorious, and hostile possession for the statutory period; tacking among successive possessors is permitted, and color of title may shorten the period in some states.

Zoning: nonconforming uses may continue but cannot be expanded; variances require unnecessary hardship (use variance) or practical difficulty (area variance); amortization of nonconforming uses is permissible if reasonable.

Mortgages: title theory states treat the mortgagee as holding title, while lien theory states treat the mortgage as a lien; foreclosure extinguishes junior liens, and a senior lienholder may foreclose subject to the mortgage; equitable redemption ends at the foreclosure sale.

Agency rests on consent, control, and fiduciary duty; an agent's apparent authority binds the principal when the principal's manifestations reasonably lead a third party to believe the agent has authority, while ratification requires acceptance of the benefits with knowledge of the material facts.

General partnership: every partner is an agent of the partnership for apparently carrying on business in the ordinary course, and each partner is jointly and severally liable for partnership obligations under the Uniform Partnership Act; a limited liability partnership shields partners from co-partner malpractice claims in many states.

Limited partnerships require at least one general partner and one limited partner; limited partners are liable only to the extent of their contributions but lose limited liability by participating in control.

Limited liability companies are governed by operating agreements; members are shielded from entity debts, and the charging order is the exclusive remedy of a judgment creditor against a member's interest; veil piercing applies to LLCs in many jurisdictions.

Corporations: de jure corporation status requires substantial compliance with mandatory incorporation provisions; de facto status requires a good-faith attempt to incorporate and exercise of corporate privileges; estoppel can bind parties who dealt with the entity as a corporation.

Corporate governance: the board manages the corporation; directors owe duties of care (business judgment rule presumes informed decisions in good faith) and loyalty (no self-dealing, corporate opportunity, or competing with the corporation without disclosure and approval).

Shareholder rights: voting on fundamental changes (mergers, asset sales, dissolution), inspection of books and records for a proper purpose, dividends only from surplus or current earnings, and derivative suits subject to demand or demand futility.

Securities law basics: Rule 10b-5 prohibits material misstatements or omissions in connection with the purchase or sale of securities with scienter, reliance, and damages; Section 16(b) short-swing profits are recoverable by the corporation without proof of intent.

Dissolution and winding up: dissolution triggers winding up, marshaling assets, paying creditors, and distributing the remainder to owners; a corporation may be dissolved administratively for failure to file reports or pay franchise taxes.

Marriage requires a license, solemnization, and capacity (age, consent, no prior undissolved marriage); common law marriage is recognized in a minority of states and requires present agreement, cohabitation, and holding out.

Premarital agreements are enforceable if in writing, signed voluntarily, with fair and reasonable disclosure of finances, and without unconscionability; the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act allows waiver of spousal support if not unconscionable at enforcement.

Divorce: no-fault grounds include irreconcilable differences or irretrievable breakdown; fault grounds such as adultery, cruelty, or desertion remain in some states; a bilateral divorce requires domicile in the forum state and notice satisfying due process.

Property division: equitable distribution divides marital property based on factors such as length of marriage, contributions, and earning capacity; separate property (premarital, gifts, inheritance) is generally excluded absent commingling; community property states divide marital property equally.

Child custody: the best interests of the child standard governs; the tender years doctrine is largely rejected; joint legal or physical custody may be ordered where parents cooperate; the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act determines home-state jurisdiction.

Child support: the income shares or percentage-of-income model applies under state guidelines; modification requires a substantial change in circumstances; the child support obligation generally cannot be retroactively modified.

Adoption requires termination of parental rights or consent, a home study, and a final decree; the Indian Child Welfare Act imposes heightened placement preferences and notice requirements for children with tribal heritage.

Paternity: a child born during marriage is presumed legitimate; challenges require clear and convincing evidence; genetic testing may rebut the presumption, subject to statutes of limitations and equitable estoppel.

Intestate succession: the surviving spouse takes a statutory share, often the entire estate if no descendants or a portion with descendants; descendants take by representation; the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act presumes survival by 120 hours.

Wills require testamentary intent, capacity (testator understands nature of property, natural objects of bounty, and the disposition), and formalities: writing, signature, and two witnesses under the traditional rule; holographic wills require material provisions in the testator's handwriting.

Revocation of wills occurs by subsequent writing, physical act with intent to revoke, or operation of law (divorce revokes provisions for the former spouse in most states); revival of a revoked will requires republication.

Trusts require a settlor with capacity and intent, trust property, a beneficiary, and a trustee; spendthrift clauses restrict voluntary and involuntary alienation of a beneficiary's interest; a resulting trust arises from failure of an express trust.

Trustee duties: loyalty, prudence (Uniform Prudent Investor Act), impartiality among beneficiaries, and duty to account; the trustee may delegate investment functions but must monitor the delegate; self-dealing is voidable regardless of good faith.

Future interests: remainder interests may be vested or contingent; the Rule Against Perpetuities voids interests that might vest more than 21 years after a life in being at creation; the cy pres doctrine applies to charitable trusts.

Will contests: lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence (factors include opportunity, susceptibility, and unnatural disposition), fraud, duress, and improper execution; no-contest clauses are enforceable if probable cause exists in some states.

Elective share: a surviving spouse may claim a statutory fraction of the augmented estate notwithstanding the will; the omitted spouse or child statutes protect those unintentionally omitted.

Power of attorney and advance directives: a durable power of attorney survives incapacity; health care proxies and living wills authorize end-of-life decisions; guardianship requires clear and convincing evidence of incapacity.

Choice of law: the traditional vested-rights approach applies the law of the place of the wrong; modern approaches include interest analysis (governmental interest), the most significant relationship test of the Restatement (Second), and comparative impairment.

Torts: the most significant relationship test considers the place of injury, place of conduct, domicile of the parties, and the place where the relationship is centered; the place of injury is generally presumed in personal injury cases.

Contracts: the Restatement (Second) presumes the law of the state with the most significant relationship, considering place of contracting, negotiation, performance, subject matter, and domicile; the parties may choose the governing law absent a contrary fundamental policy.

Constitutional limits: the Due Process Clause requires a significant contact or significant aggregation of contacts creating state interest; the Full Faith and Credit Clause requires a state to recognize valid judgments of sister states.

Marriage validity: a marriage valid where celebrated is generally valid everywhere unless it violates a strong public policy of the forum, such as polygamy, incest, or evasion of domiciliary law.

Judgments: a court must recognize a sister state's judgment if the rendering court had jurisdiction over the person and subject matter; the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require recognition of penal judgments or judgments rendered without jurisdiction.

Domicile: a person acquires a domicile of choice by physical presence plus intent to remain; a child takes the domicile of the parents, and a person may have only one domicile at a time.

IRAC structure: issue, rule, application, and conclusion; the rule statement must cite the controlling authority and distinguish binding from persuasive precedent.

Case synthesis: extract the rule from multiple cases, identify the holding and dicta, and reconcile apparent conflicts by factual distinctions or doctrinal evolution.

Counteranalysis: identify the strongest opposing argument, apply the rule to the opposing facts, and explain why the client's position prevails under the governing standard.

Citation form under the Bluebook: case names italicized or underlined, volume-reporter-first page, pinpoint citation, and court and year in parentheses; signals such as see, cf., and e.g. convey the degree of support.

Objective versus persuasive writing: objective memos predict outcomes and address adverse authority; persuasive briefs advocate, frame facts favorably, and use point headings that state conclusions.

Fact statement drafting: include legally relevant facts, omit irrelevant detail, avoid conclusory characterizations, and organize chronologically or by legal element.

Statutory interpretation: begin with plain meaning, then examine structure, canons (expressio unius, ejusdem generis, noscitur a sociis), legislative history, and purpose when ambiguity remains.

Rule synthesis for essay exams: state the majority rule, note minority or modern variations, and apply the facts to each element with a conclusion for each issue.