{"id":554,"date":"2013-09-17T09:59:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T13:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/?p=554"},"modified":"2013-09-18T08:56:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T12:56:44","slug":"the-boy-who-cried-balloon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/09\/17\/the-boy-who-cried-balloon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boy Who Cried Balloon"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Product: Balloon Boy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 15, 2009, Richard and Mayumi Heene called 911 in a panic. Their son Falcon had gone missing, as had a large metallic helium balloon housed in their backyard. Local and federal authorities conducted a highly publicized rescue effort for the \u201cUFO,\u201d but when the balloon was recovered, it was found empty.\u00a0The Heenes eventually admitted that the incident was a hoax and a publicity stunt\u2014Falcon was in the house the whole time.<\/p>\n

Facing a media circus and exasperated law enforcement, prosecutors at the Laramie County District Attorney\u2019s Office needed to act. But first, they had to decide which aspects of this debacle were truly criminal. Which charges would satisfy the public opinion and deter future stunts like this, while being legally defensible and just? With both parents facing charges, what responsibility did the prosecution have to preserve the unity of the family?\u00a0 The parents were eccentric, but were they unstable? Was it even in the children\u2019s best interests for the parents to retain custody?<\/p>\n

Professors Alex Whiting and Todd Rakoff\u2019s case study, Balloon Boy<\/a><\/em>, asks participants to make decisions and evaluations from the perspective of the assistant District Attorneys. After debating practical and ethical concerns and discussing the statutory and case law in context, student teams draft a memo with recommendations for the District Attorney.\u201cThe problem is written to emphasize prosecutorial discretion, both as to what is the best outcome and as to the best way to get there,\u201d says Rakoff. \u201cBut prosecutorial discretion operates in the shadow of what the law permits, and how clearly or ambiguously it is stated. The purpose of this memo is to describe that shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developed for the Problem Solving Workshop<\/a>, a required 1L course at Harvard Law School, the case includes four parts: an initial description of the problem, presented through fictionalized email correspondence; a probing evaluation of the case\u2019s competing interests, intended to spark follow-up class sessions; and the citations for two suggested supplemental readings, about prosecutorial discretion and the case\u2019s real-life resolution.\u00a0 Included in the free educator copy is a detailed teaching note with legal analysis from Rakoff and suggested YouTube clips of the media coverage of the events.<\/p>\n

The Problem Solving Workshop allows students to confront client problems in the way practicing lawyers do, from the very beginning.\u00a0Rakoff, who teaches administrative law, contracts, and government structure at Harvard Law School, has taught in the Problem Solving Workshop since its inception in 2010.<\/p>\n

For more information, or to discuss how to adapt the case study and problem solving pedagogy for your academic or professional education needs, contact Lisa Brem, Case Studies Program Manager, at\u00a0lbrem@law.harvard.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Product: Balloon Boy On October 15, 2009, Richard and Mayumi Heene called 911 in a panic. Their son Falcon had gone missing, as had a large metallic helium balloon housed in their backyard. Local and federal authorities conducted a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-problem-solving-workshop-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CR8M-8W","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":498,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/08\/06\/conversation-starters-case-studies-for-curricular-reform\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":0},"title":"Conversation Starters: Case Studies for Curricular Reform","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"August 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In April, Dean Jeremy Paul of the Northeastern University School of Law and co-managing partner Alan Klinger of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan wrote for the New York Law Journal about legal curricular reform.\u00a0 Paul and Klinger outline seven improvements to current legal training, and we at the Case Studies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Development Initiative Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Development Initiative Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-development-initiative-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":811,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/06\/18\/do-prosecutorial-tactics-optimize-justice-reconsidering-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":1},"title":"Do Prosecutorial Tactics Optimize Justice? Reconsidering Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: \u201cProsecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case\u201d In January 2011, an Assistant United States Attorney in Massachusetts\u2019 Internet and Computer Crimes Unit was assigned a case from MIT. For months, a guest on the MIT computer network had been downloading much of the online\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aaron_Swartz","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/06\/Aaron_Swartz-500x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":963,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2015\/04\/28\/can-we-have-justice-in-an-imperfect-world-dsk-case-study-shows-fractured-relationship-between-justice-and-justice-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":2},"title":"Can We Have Justice in an Imperfect World? DSK Case Study Shows Fractured Relationship between Justice and Justice System","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"April 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution\u201d HLS Professor Jeannie Suk repurposed a discussion-based case study, \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution,\u201d to explore the disconnect between justice and the justice system in a foundational 1L course. In her two sections of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Professor Jeannie Suk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2015\/04\/10869.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1417,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2018\/06\/19\/worker-centers-our-walmart-case-studies-on-the-changing-face-of-labor-in-the-united-states\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":3},"title":"Worker Centers & OUR Walmart: Case studies on the changing face of labor in the United States","author":"morourke","date":"June 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo credit: The All-Nite Images from NY, NY USA on Wikimedia Commons A Q&A with Sharon Block, Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School by: Lisa Brem* Recently, HLS Case Writing Fellow Brittany Deitch and I worked with Sharon Block, Executive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Development Initiative Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Development Initiative Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-development-initiative-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2018\/06\/optional-image-for-worker-centers-Occupy_May_Day_2015_17334527022-500x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2016\/04\/05\/the-classroom-experience-prosecutorial-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining-the-aaron-swartz-case-a-and-the-battle-for-unocal-case-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":4},"title":"The Classroom Experience: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case (A) and The Battle for Unocal Case Studies","author":"Alec Villalpando","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Post by Logan Sawyer, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Harvard Law School \u201cThat class was awesome,\u201d and \u201cYou should definitely do that again next year,\u201d were the first things I heard from students after the two case studies I taught in two different classes, at two different institutions.\u00a0The classes were\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":694,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/03\/04\/can-governments-follow-their-own-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":554,"position":5},"title":"Can Governments Follow Their Own Rules?","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau It is no easy task to create a new government agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was no exception. 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