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The Alabama Constitution: Despite a Century of Updates, Traces of its Racist Past Linger
The constitution’s extensive amendments and inclusion of local government rules make Alabama’s constitution the country’s longest
State ex rel. Collar v. Evnen
Held that referendum seeking to repeal act providing scholarships to eligible students to cover costs of schooling did not make an "appropriation" within the meaning of constitutional exception to referendum power
State ex rel. Elizabeth Constance v. Evnen
Held that voter ballot initiative, which proposed to amend the state constitution to limit abortion in the second and third trimesters, did not violate the single subject rule
Richard v. Governor
Ruled that the state constitutional provision governing choice of governor, council, and senators did not mandate that votes must be counted by hand
Ex parte Charette
Held that the exhaustion of administrative remedies in the Texas Ethics Commission is a prerequisite to bringing criminal charges against a political candidate for campaign-law violations
Natural Rights in State Courts
State constitutional provisions broadly protecting “inherent rights” do real work.
People v. Lewis
Held that the county court is not required to grant appeal bond to a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor and found to pose a danger to the community, but is, upon request, required to stay the execution of defendant's sentence pending appeal to the district court
Commonwealth v. Dilworth
Held that the court will apply a less rigorous standard when evaluating equal protection claims in the context of alleged discriminatory policing during the investigatory phase of a case
State v. Miller
Held that the Iowa Constitution’s cruel and unusual punishment clause does not prohibit sentencing juvenile offenders to a minimum prison term before they are eligible for parole and rejected the defendant’s argument that the same clause bars such a sentence unless there is expert testimony concerning defendants’ “youthful characteristics"
Hild, Administration of the Estate of Boldman v. Samaritan Health Partners
Held that when jurors are presented with interrogatories that require them to separately decide the elements of a negligence claim, the same-juror rule applies, requiring the same three-fourths of jurors to agree on all questions comprising the verdict slip
