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State Court Oral Arguments to Watch for in June
Issues on the dockets include partisan gerrymandering, fines and fees imposed on indigent defendants, and bans on flavored tobacco and online vision tests.
Krasner v. Ward
Held that articles of impeachment brought by the Pennsylvania legislature against District Attorney of Philadelphia County Larry Krasner became null and void upon the expiration in November 2022 of that legislative session.
Despite Constitutional Amendment, Abortion Still Out of Reach in Missouri
The Missouri Supreme Court reinstated restrictions on abortion this week, effectively making the procedure impossible to access in the state.
Arizona Right to Life v. Fontes
Held that the ballot description for an abortion-rights amendment initiative was sufficiently accurate and was not required to explain the initiative's potential impact on existing abortion laws.
After U.S. Supreme Court Ruling, It’s Back to States’ Laboratories for Religious Charter Schools
An evenly split Court left in place the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision that granting a charter to a religious school was unconstitutional.
Zyst v. Miller
Oregon trial court held that the state prison's failure to provide medically necessary gender-affirming care and treatment to a transgender inmate, and to provide adequate conditions when the inmate was in a period of segregation, violated cruel and unusual punishment and "unnecessary rigor" clauses.
Layla H v. Virginia
Plaintiffs claim that state’s practice of approving permits for fossil-fuel infrastructure violates substantive due process and public trust rights to natural resources, protected by the state constitution. They claim such practice infringes these rights by contributing to greenhouse-gas pollution and climate change. A trial court dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint, and the intermediate appellate court affirmed on the basis that the plaintiffs lack standing. Finding that there was no reversible error, the Virginia Supreme Court declined to grant review of the appellate court decision.
State ex rel. Citizens Not Politicians v. Ohio Ballot Board
Largely upheld ballot language drafted by ballot board for a 2024 initiative that would have created an independent redistricting commission, concluding that characterization of the commission as "required to gerrymander" district boundaries was not unconstitutionally misleading.
Amanda Barrow
Amanda Barrow is a senior staff attorney with UCLA Law’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy.
The Role of History and Tradition in State Court Abortion Cases
Some state courts weighed historical evidence and found abortion rights protections, diverging from the U.S. Supreme Court’s approach in Dobbs.
