Archive: | State Law Research Initiative

State Courts & Constitutional Structure

The Yale Law Journal (2019)

In a famous 1977 article, Justice William Brennan called on state courts to interpret the individual-rights provisions of their state constitutions more expansively than analogous federal guarantees. Over the years, state constitutions have served as the foundation for important individual-rights decisions, yet their provisions remain unfamiliar to and often ignored by lawyers,...

Criminal Law & State Constitutions: The Emergence of State Constitutional Law

Texas Law Review (1984-85)

Today, state supreme courts are .. functioning as laboratories in the administration of criminal justice. These courts are becoming significant constitutional law courts as judges interpret their state constitutions, as well as the federal constitution, to determine the rights of defendants in the state criminal justice system. Federal court of appeals Judge...

Reverse Incorporation of State Constitutional Law

Southern California Law Review (2011)

State supreme courts and the United States Supreme Court are the independent and final arbiters of their respective constitutions, and may therefore take different approaches to analogous state and federal constitutional issues. Such issues arise often, because the documents were modeled on each other and share many of the same guarantees. In...

state constitutionalism

State Courts & Constitutional Structure

Criminal Law & State Constitutions: The Emergence of State Constitutional Law

Reverse Incorporation of State Constitutional Law