You are sitting in your Contracts class, listening intently, while the professor introduces a hypothetical. One of the factors that would influence the result is the relative distance to deliver a product from Cincinnati, Ohio, to either Columbus, Ohio, or Lexington, Kentucky. You think you know which way is faster, but youll get more accurate information if you use your laptop to check Google Maps. Before you consult Google Maps while sitting in Contracts class, you recall the following:

The syllabus allows computers in class, if used only for purposes associated with the class.

Last year the same Contracts professor noticed a student bidding on eBay during class. After that, the professor prohibited students from using laptops in class for the rest of the year, and everyone else in class resented the person who was caught.

This semester, your Civil Procedure professor posted a message from a student about the Seventh Circuits website providing information on standards of review. The professors posting thanked the student for locating and sharing such useful information. Use the skills of working with precedent to predict what the Contracts professor will do if you use Google Maps, following these steps:

1. Fill in the table printed below to see whether it helps you make a prediction. In the second and third columns, write a narrow and a broad interpretation of the rule applied in each precedent.

2. Synthesize by weighing the information together to determine whether the precedents combine to support one rule, a rule with an exception, or more than one rule.

3. Tentatively predict the result if you use Google Maps in Contracts class, based on the rule or rules you just synthesized.

4. Assess your tentative prediction by imagining arguments that can be made for each side. Would a narrow or broad interpretation of the rule lead to different results? Does your case include facts that seem significantly different from the precedent cases?

5. Weigh the arguments for the competing results, as a judge would. Which side is more likely to win, and why? This answer will be your final prediction.