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Civil Rights
State constitutions guarantee equality, freedom from discrimination, fair treatment under the law, and a broad range of other civil rights. Issues that regularly crop up in state court include discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, age, or disability, abuses of power by government actors, as well as the availability of monetary damages for such state constitutional violations.
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Pennsylvania Rejects Federal “Administrative Warrants” and Restores Renters’ Privacy
A state appellate court’s decision underscores the continuing vitality of independent state constitutional law to reject federal doctrine — and to protect personal privacy.
LGBTQ Rights & State Constitutions
Transcript of panel from Symposium: The Power of State Constitutional Rights
State Court Oral Arguments to Watch for in January
Issues on the dockets include legislative responses to Missouri’s voter-approved reproductive rights amendment, Utah’s execution methods, and Idaho’s school-choice program.
2025’s Most Significant State Constitutional Cases
Leading legal thinkers weighed in on the state constitutional rulings our readers should know about from this past year.
Why We Should Care About Diversity on the Bench
New data shows women and people of color are underrepresented on state high courts.
How Originalism Revived an Abortion Ban a Majority of the North Dakota Supreme Court Held Unconstitutional
Although three of the five justices on the court concluded the ban violated state due process rights, a state rule requiring a supermajority to strike down a law means the dissenting opinion controls.
"Liberty" is a Big Word, and That’s OK
A recent abortion rights decision in North Dakota demonstrates that the distinction between “fundamental” and “non-fundamental” rights doesn’t always make sense in state constitutional jurisprudence.
State High Courts Split on Laws Letting Survivors of Sexual Abuse Sue After Expiration of Statutes of Limitations
State supreme courts have emphasized different constitutional provisions to decide whether bills reviving time-barred civil causes of action for child sexual abuse claims are constitutional.