State high courts continue to settle disputes over voting and election processes, including obstacles to by-mail voting — and to define the right to vote under their own constitutions.
State courts are leaning on their unique state constitutional provisions, departing from federal precedent, and deciding who can challenge restrictive laws.
A lively debate about the value of “history and tradition” in analyzing cases is ongoing in state courts. Some justices are pushing for alternative interpretative methodologies.
More data and further scholarship is needed to devise policies for promoting a state bench that adequately represents the varied background of the public.
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Case Trends: State Courts Shape the Right to Vote
State high courts continue to settle disputes over voting and election processes, including obstacles to by-mail voting — and to define the right to vote under their own constitutions.
Case Trends: Post-Dobbs and Skrmetti, State Courts Are Battlegrounds for Transgender and Reproductive Rights
State courts are leaning on their unique state constitutional provisions, departing from federal precedent, and deciding who can challenge restrictive laws.
Case Trends: State Courts Continue to Grapple with Covid-19 Policies
Courts are still weighing the constitutionality of state responses to the pandemic more than five years after its start.
State Justices Continue to Challenge Originalism
A lively debate about the value of “history and tradition” in analyzing cases is ongoing in state courts. Some justices are pushing for alternative interpretative methodologies.
Honoring Former Hawaii Justice Masaji Marumoto’s Legacy on the Bench
A look at Marumoto’s trailblazing career, in celebration of May’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month.
State Justices Speak Out Against Originalism
State supreme courts are increasingly a venue for debate over history’s role in constitutional interpretation.
New Findings Highlight Lack of Diversity on State Supreme Courts
More data and further scholarship is needed to devise policies for promoting a state bench that adequately represents the varied background of the public.