-
2 days ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Mary Ziegler |Julia R. Livingston |Diana Kasdan
This month marks the third anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and held that there was no federal constitutional right to abortion. The Court said it was returning decisions about abortion regulation “to the people and their elected representatives.” Strikingly, the decision didn’t mention state courts.
-
1 week ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Aaron Saiger |Alicia Bannon |Erin Smith
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court divided 4–4 over whether denying a charter school application from a religious school would violate the Constitution’s prohibition on establishing or favoring a religion. The decision upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s holding that chartering a school that would “evangelize” a particular faith violated state legislation and the Oklahoma and federal constitutions.
-
1 week ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Mary Ziegler |Alicia Bannon |Julia R. Livingston |Diana Kasdan
An intermediate appellate court in Florida teed up a major constitutional clash that could reshape abortion access and state law on parental and fetal rights. The case, Doe v. Uthmeier, began as a run-of-the-mill judicial bypass case — when a minor petitions a court for approval to do something that would usually require parental consent. In the 1970s, in the aftermath of Roe v.
-
2 weeks ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Bridget Lavender |Geeta Tewari |Ochuwa Garuba
Last week, Massachusetts’s highest court unanimously ruled that the commonwealth’s Department of Children and Families violated the Massachusetts Constitution when it vaccinated a child temporarily in its custody despite the religious objections of her parents. It was a significant religious freedom ruling at a time when declining public trust in vaccines is likely to make such conflicts more common.
-
1 month ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Justin Lam |Erin Smith |Alicia Bannon
The court approved a law to strip the governor’s election board powers, risking creating a precedent for partisan power-grabbing. Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the legislature’s power grab over the State Boards of Elections, the agency charged with administering elections, campaign finance disclosures, and all 100 county election boards.
-
1 month ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Erin Smith |Justin Lam |Alicia Bannon
Judge Jefferson Griffin (R), who had attempted to have more than 60,000 votes thrown out in his race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat, has conceded to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs (D). His action ends a dispute that extended six months after the 2024 election and played out in both state and federal courts. Griffin’s concession came just two days after a federal district court judge ordered the election be certified.
-
1 month ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Marcus Gadson |Alicia Bannon |Amy Stainback Myrick |Alexander Wilson
The state’s 55-year-old constitution offers progressive protections like a right to education while retaining elements of state-sponsored efforts to prevent Black progress in the post-Reconstruction era. This essay is part of a 50-state series about the nation’s constitutions. We’ve asked an expert from each state to dive into their constitution, narrate its history, identify its quirks, and summarize its most essential components for our readers.
-
1 month ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Justin Lam |Alicia Bannon |Erin Smith |Eric Petry
In a dispute that has stretched five months past Election Day, a state appeals court ruled last week that over 60,000 North Carolinians who voted in the 2024 state supreme court election will have to prove their eligibility or risk having their ballots thrown out. The court also held that the votes of hundreds of children and dependents born abroad to North Carolinians will not count. The ruling in Griffin v.
-
2 months ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Erin Smith |Eric Petry |Andrew Garber
On April 1, Wisconsinites will cast their ballots in a state supreme court election that is already the most expensive judicial election in history. The Brennan Center has documented an estimated $66.9 million in spending to date on the race for an open seat on the court, much of it from national figures and groups — all evidence that judicial elections have entered a new era of politicization.
-
2 months ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Mary Adkins |Douglas Keith |Julia R. Livingston |Alicia Bannon
State constitutions guarantee equality, freedom from discrimination, fair treatment under the law, and a broad range of other civil rights. Issues that regularly crop up in state court include discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or identity, age, or disability, abuses of power by government actors, as well as the availability of monetary damages for such state constitutional violations.
