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Criminal Law
Criminal justice is administered primarily at the state and county level. The vast majority of incarcerated people in the United States are in county and state custody. Constitutional challenges in state courts usually focus on the rights of defendants and incarcerated people.
These cases can address criminal procedure and due process, search and seizure, the right to counsel and a jury trial, criminal jury rights, the right against self-incrimination, bail and excessive fees and fines, admissibility of evidence, sentencing, the death penalty, police misconduct, prison conditions, and habeas.
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The New Jersey Constitution: A Tool of Good Governance, Not Partisan Politics
A 1947 constitution offered a needed update for a state saddled with a weak executive and a court system “out of Dickens.”
Recent State Judicial Opinions Critique Lockstepping
Justices in Connecticut, Texas, and Pennsylvania have called on their courts to embrace independent state constitutional interpretations.
Disability Rights Under State Constitutions
Thirty-five years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, state constitutional anti-discrimination clauses, voting rights, and educational guarantees can expand protections for people with disabilities.
States Grapple with the Death Penalty
More people have been executed in 2025 than in any year of the past decade. But some states are strengthening protections against the death penalty.
Texas Suit Against New York Doctor Ushers in New Era of Abortion Litigation
The Texas attorney general alleges a New York physician broke Texas law when she mailed abortion-inducing medication to a woman in Texas.
As Executions Rise, A Conversation with an Attorney Whose Clients Are Facing the Death Penalty
John Mills, whose client on Oklahoma’s death row was granted a new trial by the U.S. Supreme Court this term, discusses his anti-death-penalty advocacy.
How Courts and Litigators Can Help Redefine “Cruel” and “Unusual” Punishments
A new law review article offers guidance for state appellate judges interpreting their Eighth Amendment cognates for the first time.
What this Year’s SCOTUS Term Means for State Courts
Several rulings will impact the power of state courts and the cases that come before them.