Iowa

A solution to the constitutional uncertainty around many state-issued protection orders may come from an overlooked detail in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment decision.

Some state courts weighed historical evidence and found abortion rights protections, diverging from the U.S. Supreme Court’s approach in Dobbs.

State high courts continue to settle disputes over voting and election processes, including obstacles to by-mail voting — and to define the right to vote under their own constitutions.

At oral arguments over the constitutionality of mandatory life-without-parole sentences for young adults, several justices suggested the right to be free from “cruel or unusual” punishments might be fundamental. 

The administration’s attempts to undermine or interfere with elections run afoul of constitutional delegations of responsibility. 

Many states require a litigant challenging a statute as violating the U.S. Constitution to prove the statute is unconstitutional “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The U.S. prison system violates democratic social orders aiming to lessen racist and class hierarchies. Its development was not inevitable.

Throughout history, state constitutional drafting has involved failure and violent crisis and has sometimes torn us apart rather than brought us together.