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What this Year’s SCOTUS Term Means for State Courts
Several rulings will impact the power of state courts and the cases that come before them.
Doe v. Uthmeier
A 17-year-old petitioned for a judicial waiver so that she may consent to an abortion without parental notification and consent. A Florida intermediate appellate court held that the judicial waiver law, which allows parental consent to be bypassed upon certain trial court findings, violates parents' due process rights. Anticipating Florida Supreme Court review, the intermediate court certified the question of the law's constitutionality to the state high court.
Rafael Cox Alomar
Rafael Cox Alomar is a professor of law at the David A. Clarke School of Law of the University of the District of Columbia in Washington D.C. and author of...
The Puerto Rico Constitution: A Unique Territorial Framework
Though the island’s territorial constitution offers unique provisions and a focus on human rights, Congress still exerts plenary powers over Puerto Rico.
Care and Prevention of Eve
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that department of children and families violated the state constitution's free exercise of religion protection when it vaccinated a child temporarily in its custody over the religious objections of her parents. Parents who have temporarily lost custody of their children retain a residual right to direct their religious upbringing, and the state must demonstrate that allowing the child to remain unvaccinated would substantially hinder the department’s compelling interest in the vaccination.
Jersey City United Against the New Ward Map v. Jersey City Ward Commission
New Jersey Supreme Court held new boundaries for municipal election districts redrawn after the 2020 census that local organizations and a city councilman had alleged carve up longstanding neighborhoods and communities of interest do not violate New Jersey’s equal protection clause, civil rights law, or statute requiring municipal wards to be “compact.”
State v. Davieontray Breax
Louisiana Supreme Court held that the state constitution bars prosecutors from joining capital charges with other felony charges in one indictment.
J.F. v. St. Vincent Hospital
Indiana Supreme Court established a new approach to mootness for the state constitutional and statutory right to appeal court-ordered temporary involuntary commitments confining individuals to mental health treatment facilities, holding that expiration of such an order generally will not bar appeal. Expiration will only moot an appeal if the appellee can show the absence of any collateral consequence from the temporary commitment order.
Ava Kaufman
Ava Kaufman is the special assistant to the director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Extreme Heat Exacerbates Dire Prison Conditions, With Few Paths to Relief
People behind bars are particularly vulnerable to harm during heat waves and climate-related disasters. Advocates should consider state constitutional solutions.
