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State v. Evans
Washington Supreme Court held that a county's administrative booking process, which involves patting down, handcuffing, and detaining pretrial releasees inside a jail to take their fingerprints and identifying information, violates the state constitution’s protection against intrusions into "private affairs" without authority of law.
Ferguson v. Department of Transportation
Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that counting prior participation in a diversionary program to resolve a driving-under-the-influence charge as a prior offense prompting a driver's license suspension for a subsequent conviction does not violate substantive due process under the state constitution.
Robust Missouri Dispensary 3 v. St. Louis County
Missouri Supreme Court held that the definition of "local government" in a 2022 amendment legalizing recreational marijuana use plainly prevents both counties and cities from imposing sales tax on the same marijuana products.
Maryjane Johnson
Maryjane Johnson is a program associate in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
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.
State v. Haynes
Connecticut Supreme Court declined to depart from precedent, based on federal case law, permitting prosecutors to impeach a defendant's trial testimony using statements obtained in violation of the defendant's Miranda rights.
Englewood Hospital & Medical Center v. State
New Jersey Supreme Court rejected claims by a group of hospitals that the state’s “charity care program” — which prevents them from turning away people unable to pay and from billing qualified patients — constitutes an illegal "per se" or regulatory taking under the state and federal constitutions.
Methodist University v. South Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church
Concurrence to Texas Supreme Court decision finding a church conference has statutory authority to sue Southern Methodist University for breach of contract, in which four justices highlighted the need to consider the extent to which the state constitution protects the autonomy of religious organizations, independent of the First Amendment.
