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State Court Oral Arguments to Watch for in April
Issues on the dockets include parental rights under now-defunct same-sex marriage bans, New York City’s emissions caps for big buildings, and more.
Sanctuary Policies in a Federal System
States and localities that restrict federal enforcement of immigration and gun laws promote diversity and help protect against authoritarianism.
Andrew Willinger
Andrew Willinger is the executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law and a lecturing fellow at Duke Law School. He teaches and writes on the...
The Complexity of Lockstepping Post-Bruen
A Kansas court recently refused to follow federal precedent in interpreting the state constitutional right to bear arms.
Abortion Rights and Transgender Rights Are Intertwined
As federal courts use the rollback of abortion rights to undermine protections for trans people, Montana’s high court has extended rights in both areas.
In re Courtney Rae Hudson v. Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts
Relying on the state high court's general superintending control over all state courts, vacated a circuit court preliminary injunction that had prevented the administrative office of the courts and the office of professional conduct from complying with a FOIA request for certain communications with the state supreme court chief justice. The state high court also referred the chief justice and her attorney, who had sought the injunction, to state ethics bodies.
Blackmon v. State
Plaintiffs who allege they were denied, or received delayed, medically necessary abortion care due to doctors' confusion regarding the scope of the medical necessity exception in the state's abortion ban challenge that exception as violating their state constitutional rights to life and equal protection and as unconstitutionally vague. A Tennessee trial court held the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits as to each challenge, at least with respect to certain maternal medical conditions the parties agreed fall within the exception, and granted temporary relief declaring the exception to include those conditions.
Mitchell v. University of North Carolina Board of Governors
Will consider whether public university's termination of a tenured professor based, in part, on a letter he wrote to a department chair using offensive language violates the First Amendment, and whether lower courts' deference to the interpretation put forth by the university -- a state agency -- of its faculty employment regulations violates separation of powers.
Murray v. Dalton (In re Doe)
Held that Idaho’s statutes governing powers and duties of guardianship and governing resignation, removal, modification, or termination proceedings for guardians of minors, were rationally related to legitimate government interest in the minor’s safety and best interests and, thus, were not unconstitutionally broad or vague in violation of due process
In re S.M.
Held that an indigent parent or custodial respondent in an abuse and neglect case has a right to appointed counsel at all stages of the proceedings, but they may elect to continue self-represented upon a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to counsel
