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Adkins v. State
Idaho trial court denied motion to dismiss claim that the state's abortion bans — as applied to pregnant people that have "an emergent medical condition that poses a risk of death or risk to their health (including their fertility)" — violate the state constitution's "inalienable rights" clause, finding that the Idaho Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Planned Parenthood Great Northwest v. State that the bans were not facially invalid in all applications did not preclude this as-applied challenge.
State v. Hall
Kansas intermediate appellate court held that the state constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" should be applied independently of, and not in lockstep with, the federal Second Amendment. Applying strict scrutiny, the court found a state ban on gun possession by people convicted of certain felonies for a term of years after their release from prison to be narrowly tailored to a compelling interest in ensuring public safety.
Edwards v. Montana
Montana trial court held that a law — which defines “female,” “male,” and “sex” wherever used in the state code as two binary categories — facially violates the state constitutional right to privacy by interfering with individuals' "ability to make personal and intimate decisions concerning their bodies and psyches." The court also found as-applied state equal protection violations based on sex and cultural discrimination.
Evers v. Marklein
Wisconsin Supreme Court held that statutes permitting a legislative committee to pause, object to, or suspend administrative rules for varying periods of time both before and after promulgation — used by the committee in this case effectively to block for three years a rule banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ patients — facially violate the state constitution’s bicameralism and presentment requirements.
League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa v. Pate
Iowa Supreme Court held organization did not have standing to seek to dissolve an injunction entered in a separate case that barred the secretary of state from providing voter registration forms in languages other than English, by claiming such materials fall within an exception to the state law underlying the injunction. The law generally requires all "official documents" to be in English but exempts "language usage required by or necessary to secure" state constitutional or federal law rights. According to the court, an organization's expenditure of resources in response to a law that does not violate or regulate its rights, status, or legal relations is not a legally cognizable injury.
Black Voters Matter v. Byrd
Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's 2022 congressional map against voting rights groups' challenge that it diminishes Black voters' ability to elect candidates of their choice in violation of a 2010 amendment, finding the plaintiffs had not proven the possibility of drawing a remedial map that complies with the federal equal protection clause.
State v. Rudy Nino Parras
Oregon Supreme Court granted review to consider whether state "felon in possession" law, as applied to defendants with prior drug felonies, violates state or federal right to bear arms, but after oral argument dismissed review as improvidently allowed.
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.
How the Tort Wars Became the Court Wars
Recent rulings in Ohio and North Carolina demonstrate divisions on medical malpractice damages caps.
