Legal Commentary

The first assignment I give in Civil Procedure is likely the first regular class assignment ever for the incoming 1Ls (one aspect of teaching an 8:30am Monday morning class!).  Although we spend most of the first class on an problem/discussion that works well, for the last few years I have also assigned Marshall v. Marshall, the Anna Nicole Smith decision in the Supreme Court.  It has become dated and a bit pathetic, given the outcome, so I'm looking for suggestions for a snazzy Civ Pro case to start the course. 

I used Marshall v. Marshall for a couple of reasons:

• It shows the messiness of cases and multiplicity of issues (sometimes missing from heavily excerpted casebook versions).  The suggestion is that the course will provide a chance to unravel the threads one by one. 

• It had a celebrity/good story hook.  This may seem like a sad bid to convince students that Civ Pro is snazzy, fun and probably the most important law school class (all true, by the way), but I want to at least convey that these issues are hotly contested and that stories about, say, elderly billionaire oil man and feuds over money are often resolved on procedural grounds.

Suggestions?