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Department of Environmental Protection v. Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau; Bowfin KeyCon Holdings v. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will consider consolidated challenges to the state's participation in a regional program to cap greenhouse gases. The Commonwealth Court found the program to constitute a tax within the prerogative of the legislature, so concluded the governor's entry into the program by executive rulemaking violated separation of powers. Amicus groups and intervenors have argued the lower court's tax determination did not adequately take account of the state's duties under Pennsylvania's environmental rights amendment.
State v. Rudy Nino Parras
Will consider whether state "felon in possession" law, as applied to defendants with prior drug felonies, violates the Oregon Constitution’s “right to bear arms” clause or the Second Amendment.
Vaccines, Religious Freedom, and Parental Rights
Massachusetts’s supreme court ruled last week that the state violated religious freedom guarantees when it vaccinated a child in its custody over parental objections.
Connor v. Oklahoma
Reversed a district court’s denial of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission’s motion to dismiss a discrimination claim brought by the former general counsel of the commission. The commission claimed she failed to comply with the notice provisions of the Governmental Tort Claims Act, but the lower court had found conflicts between that act and state anti-discrimination statutes meant the notice requirements did not apply. The Oklahoma high court, reaffirming that the liability limitations in the act apply to both constitutional torts and statutes, said no irreconcilable conflicts exist.
Krasner v. Sunday
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will consider the Philadelphia district attorney's challenge to a law that requires the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to have jurisdiction over crimes committed within the regional public transit system. The Commonwealth Court rejected the allegations, including that the law unconstitutionally divests the district attorney of jurisdiction over part of the office’s territory, nullifies the district attorney’s core prosecutorial functions, and violates the due process rights of defendants based on a provision preventing those charged by the special prosecutor from challenging his authority.
Jennifer M. Chacón
Jennifer M. Chacón is the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.
State Courthouses in the ICE Age
The Trump administration’s actions signal a sea change in immigration enforcement and a broader assault on state and local governments.
Steven H. Steinglass
Steven H. Steinglass is dean emeritus and professor emeritus at Cleveland State University College of Law. His blog tracks developments of the...
The Ohio Constitution: Its History and Its Future
Recent amendments, and fights against them, demonstrate the importance of the state constitution.
State v. Gonzalez
Held that defendant's mental health could not be considered in determining whether sentence was unconstitutionally disproportionate
