MD Bar cheat sheet

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

Supplemental jurisdiction (§1367): claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact with an anchoring claim qualify, but §1367(b) bars supplemental joinder by plaintiffs in diversity cases against parties joined under Rules 14, 19, 20, or 24.

Personal jurisdiction: general jurisdiction is limited to a defendant's domicile or place of incorporation and principal place of business (Goodyear, Daimler); specific jurisdiction requires purposeful availment, relatedness, and reasonableness (International Shoe; Burger King; Asahi; Bristol-Myers Squibb).

Venue (§1391): a district where any defendant resides if all reside in the same state, where a substantial part of the events occurred, or, if none applies, where any defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction; §1404 transfer for convenience requires the transferee court to apply the transferor's choice-of-law rules (Van Dusen).

Erie doctrine: federal procedural rules and statutes govern; absent a valid federal rule, federal courts apply state substantive law, determined by whether the state rule is outcome-determinative and whether applying federal law would encourage forum shopping or inequitable administration (Hanna; York; Byrd).

Pleadings: Rule 8(a) requires a short and plain statement of the claim showing entitlement to relief (Twombly/Iqbal plausibility standard); Rule 9(b) requires particularity for fraud and mistake; Rule 12(b) defenses are waived if omitted from a pre-answer motion or answer, except 12(b)(1), (6), and (7).

Discovery: mandatory initial disclosures under Rule 26(a); scope is any nonprivileged matter relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case; work product protection under Rule 26(b)(3) is qualified and overcome by substantial need and undue hardship.

Summary judgment under Rule 56 is proper where no genuine dispute of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the nonmovant must identify record evidence supporting each element (Celotex).

Preclusion: claim preclusion requires a final judgment on the merits, same parties or privies, and same claim; issue preclusion requires actual litigation and determination of the issue, which was necessary to the judgment, with a full and fair opportunity to litigate.

Judicial review and standing: Article III requires injury in fact, causation, and redressability; third-party standing requires a close relationship and a hindrance to the third party's ability to protect their own interests (Singleton; Craig).

Sovereign immunity: the Eleventh Amendment bars suits against states in federal court for damages; Ex parte Young permits prospective injunctive relief against state officers; Congress may abrogate under §5 of the Fourteenth Amendment but not under Article I (Seminole Tribe; Fitzpatrick).

Commerce power: Congress may regulate channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, persons or things in interstate commerce, and activities substantially affecting interstate commerce (Lopez; Morrison; Raich); the Necessary and Proper Clause supports laws implementing enumerated powers (McCulloch).

Dormant Commerce Clause: state laws discriminating against interstate commerce require a legitimate local purpose that cannot be served by reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives; nondiscriminatory laws are upheld unless burdens clearly exceed local benefits (Pike).

Equal protection tiers: strict scrutiny (fundamental rights, suspect classes such as race and national origin) requires a compelling interest and narrow tailoring; intermediate scrutiny (gender, illegitimacy) requires an exceedingly persuasive justification; rational basis applies elsewhere (Carolene Products; Craig; Cleburne).

First Amendment speech: content-based restrictions face strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, and manner regulations must be narrowly tailored to a significant government interest and leave open ample alternative channels (O'Brien; Ward).

Establishment Clause: the Lemon test (secular purpose, primary effect, no excessive entanglement) is supplemented by historical-practice analysis (Kennedy v. Bremerton); coercion and endorsement remain relevant considerations.

Procedural due process under Mathews v. Eldridge balances the private interest affected, the risk of erroneous deprivation and value of additional safeguards, and the government's interest, including fiscal and administrative burdens.

Privileges or Immunities and incorporation: the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates most Bill of Rights protections against the states (Duncan; McDonald); the Privileges or Immunities Clause remains narrow (Slaughter-House).

Formation: a contract requires mutual assent (offer and acceptance) and consideration; the UCC §2-204 allows formation by any manner showing agreement, and §2-206 permits acceptance by any reasonable medium unless unambiguously limited.

UCC firm offer rule: a merchant's signed written assurance that an offer will be held open is irrevocable for the stated period, up to three months, without consideration (§2-205).

Battle of the forms: under UCC §2-207, a definite acceptance or written confirmation operates as acceptance even with additional or different terms; additional terms are proposals that become part of the contract unless they materially alter it, the offer expressly limits acceptance, or objection is made within a reasonable time.

Statute of Frauds categories: marriage, year (cannot be performed within one year), land, executor, surety, and sale of goods over $500; the UCC merchant confirmation rule (§2-201(b)) can satisfy the writing requirement between merchants.

Parol evidence rule: integrated writings bar prior or contemporaneous agreements contradicting the terms; under the UCC, consistent additional terms may be explained or supplemented by course of performance, course of dealing, and usage of trade (§2-202).

Impracticability (Restatement §261; UCC §2-615) discharges a duty where a basic assumption of the contract fails without fault of the party, unless the party assumed the risk; mere increased cost or market shift generally does not suffice.

Anticipatory repudiation permits the nonbreaching party to treat the repudiation as a breach or await performance; the repudiating party may retract unless the other party has materially changed position or indicated finality (UCC §2-611).

Expectation damages place the nonbreaching party in the position performance would have produced; consequential damages require foreseeability (Hadley v. Baxendale); liquidated damages must be reasonable in light of anticipated or actual loss and not a penalty.

Specific performance is available for unique goods or land where legal remedies are inadequate; under UCC §2-716, specific performance may be decreed where goods are unique or in other proper circumstances, and the buyer may replevy identified goods.

Homicide grading: murder requires malice aforethought (intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk, or felony murder); voluntary manslaughter requires adequate provocation or imperfect self-defense; involuntary manslaughter requires criminal negligence or misdemeanor manslaughter.

Felony murder: the felony must be independent of the killing (the merger doctrine bars aggravated assault and battery as the predicate); liability extends to deaths proximately caused during the felony and, under agency theory, is limited to killings by felons or their accomplices.

Self-defense requires a reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force; deadly force is permitted only against imminent death or serious bodily harm; retreat is not required in most jurisdictions in one's home (castle doctrine) or, under the modern rule, where safely possible.

Accomplice liability requires intent to aid or encourage the principal's conduct; natural and probable consequences doctrine extends liability to foreseeable crimes in some jurisdictions; mere presence or knowledge without assistance is insufficient.

Fourth Amendment searches: a warrant requires probable cause and particularity; exceptions include search incident to arrest, automobile, plain view, consent, exigency, inventory, and Terry stops based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

Exclusionary rule: evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is generally suppressed, subject to exceptions for good faith, inevitable discovery, independent source, and attenuation; the rule does not apply to grand jury proceedings or civil proceedings (United States v. Calandra; Janis).

Miranda warnings are required for custodial interrogation; custody is judged by objective circumstances, and interrogation includes words or actions reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response; public safety exception (Quarles).

Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at the initiation of adversary judicial proceedings and applies to all critical stages; it is offense-specific, and the Massiah doctrine bars deliberate elicitation after attachment.

Double jeopardy bars retrial after acquittal or conviction, but not after mistrial for manifest necessity, and the Blockburger test permits separate prosecutions where each offense requires an element the other does not.

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

Character evidence: propensity evidence is barred in civil and criminal cases except for character in issue, habit, or the accused's or victim's character under Rules 404(a)(1)-(2); prior bad acts may be admitted for motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident (Rule 404(b)).

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted (Rule 801); nonhearsay uses include impeachment, effect on the listener, verbal acts, and legally operative facts.

FRE 803 exemptions from the hearsay rule include present sense impression, excited utterance, then-existing state of mind, statements for medical diagnosis or treatment, recorded recollection, business records, and public records; 804 declarant-unavailability exceptions include former testimony, dying declarations, statements against interest, and forfeiture by wrongdoing.

Confrontation Clause: testimonial statements by unavailable declarants are inadmissible unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine (Crawford; Davis); nontestimonial statements are governed by reliability (Ohio v. Roberts superseded).

Impeachment: prior inconsistent statements may be used for impeachment and, if under oath at a prior proceeding, substantively (Rule 801(d)(1)(A)); bias, sensory capacity, contradiction, and character for truthfulness (Rule 608) are also available; extrinsic evidence of collateral matters is barred (Rule 613(b)).

Privileges: attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications for legal advice and survives termination of the relationship; the crime-fraud exception removes protection; work product is protected under Hickman v. Taylor and Rule 26(b)(3).

Expert testimony under Rule 702 and Daubert requires sufficient facts or data, reliable principles and methods, and reliable application; lay opinions under Rule 701 are limited to rationally based perceptions helpful to the trier of fact.

Authentication (Rule 901) requires evidence sufficient to support a finding that the item is what the proponent claims; the best evidence rule (Rule 1002) requires the original writing, recording, or photograph to prove its content, with exceptions for lost or destroyed originals and collateral matters.

Estates: fee simple absolute is freely alienable and descendible; fee tail and life estates are limited; a life estate pur autre vie lasts for the life of another; future interests include reversion, possibility of reverter, right of entry, and remainder.

Rule Against Perpetuities: no interest is valid unless it must vest, if at all, within 21 years after a life in being at creation; the Rule applies to contingent remainders, executory interests, and vested remainders subject to open; it does not apply to reversions, rights of entry, or possibilities of reverter.

Landlord-tenant: a tenant's breach of covenant to pay rent permits eviction; the covenant of quiet enjoyment is breached by actual or constructive eviction; the implied warranty of habitability applies to residential leases and cannot be waived.

Concurrent estates: joint tenancy requires the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession plus a right of survivorship; tenancy in common has no survivorship; tenancy by the entirety requires a valid marriage and gives each spouse a right of survivorship.

Easements: express easements require a writing satisfying the Statute of Frauds; easements by implication arise from prior use; easements by necessity arise from severance and strict necessity; prescriptive easements require actual, open, notorious, hostile, continuous, and exclusive use for the statutory period.

Covenants running with land require writing, intent, touch and concern, horizontal and vertical privity, and notice; equitable servitudes require intent, touch and concern, and notice, without privity.

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

Mortgages: a deed of trust conveys title to a trustee; lien theory states require judicial foreclosure; title theory states permit power of sale; purchase-money mortgages generally have priority over prior liens.

Zoning and takings: regulatory takings require analysis under Penn Central (economic impact, investment-backed expectations, character of the action); a per se taking occurs with permanent physical invasion (Loretto) or total loss of economic value (Lucas).