Search
Filter Search
The Vermont Constitution: Early Grievances, Notable Early Protections, Still Evolving
The state’s constitution has lasted since 1793, but recent changes rid it of the vestiges of slavery and protect reproductive rights.
State Legalization of Marijuana Is Changing Search and Seizure Jurisprudence
The smell of marijuana, on its own, is no longer considered to be evidence of criminal activity in many jurisdictions.
Do State Constitutions Demand a Monopoly for Public Schools?
Courts across the country are considering whether school-choice programs violate state constitutions.
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.
Contoocook Valley School District v. New Hampshire
New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the state's existing education funding law is constitutionally inadequate and $7,356.01 per pupil as a minimum constitutional guidepost for the legislature, but said the lower court insufficiently accounted for separation of powers concerns when it ordered the state to pay that increased amount immediately.
Book Excerpt: Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis
Throughout history, state constitutional drafting has involved failure and violent crisis and has sometimes torn us apart rather than brought us together.
State v. Gonzalez
Held that defendant's mental health could not be considered in determining whether sentence was unconstitutionally disproportionate
White v. City of Mableton
Held that legislation that created and incorporated a city and created community improvement districts within it did not violate the Illinois Constitution's single subject rule
Wasserman v. Franklin County
Held that federal third-party standing was not compatible with Georgia's well-settled constitutional standing rule requiring a plaintiff to assert her own rights to maintain an action; therefore, a plaintiff cannot establish constitutional standing in Georgia courts asserting only the rights of third parties not before the court
People v. White
Held that an open, blind, guilty plea with no agreement as to sentence did not waive a constitutional challenge to the sentence, overruling prior precedent holding otherwise
