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Dec 17, 2024 | 
niemanlab.org | Nancy Watzman
Predictions are not exactly the business of the AP, where I work — rather, our mission is trusted, fact-based, independent journalism that is free from influence. And the facts about the current state of the news business are well known — to the point where they’re not exactly news:State and local news sources are among the most trusted, but newsrooms have been shutting down and bleeding journalism jobs thanks to market failure brought on by decline in advertising.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
blog.archive.org | Caralee J. Adams |Nancy Watzman
The following Q&A between writer Caralee Adams and journalist Philip Bump of The Washington Post is part of our Vanishing Culture series, highlighting the power and importance of preservation in our digital age. Read more essays online or download the full report now. Philip Bump is a columnist for The Washington Post based in New York. He writes the weekly newsletter How To Read This Chart. He’s also the author of The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America.
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May 15, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Anthony Sanders |Walter Olson |Nancy Watzman
As I’m sure State Court Report readers are well aware, universities across the country have been roiled by campus protests over the war in Gaza. State constitutions are part of the legal framework that governs how these protesters can behave and how universities and the police can respond.
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May 8, 2024 | 
blog.archive.org | Nancy Watzman
It’s that time again. The 2024 End of Term crawl has officially begun! The End of Term Web Archive #EOTArchive hosts an initiative named the End of Term crawl to archive U.S. government websites in the .gov and .mil web domains — as well as those harder-to-find government websites hosted on .org, .edu, and other top level domains (TLDs) — as one administrative term ends and a new term begins. End of Term crawls have been completed for term transitions in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.
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May 8, 2024 | 
blog.archive.org | Nancy Watzman
It’s that time again. The 2024 End of Term crawl has officially begun! The End of Term Web Archive #EOTArchive hosts an initiative named the End of Term crawl to archive U.S. government websites in the .gov and .mil web domains — as well as those harder-to-find government websites hosted on .org, .edu, and other top level domains (TLDs) — as one administrative term ends and a new term begins. End of Term crawls have been completed for term transitions in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Anthony Sanders |Walter Olson |Nancy Watzman |Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot
Can singing or writing violent song lyrics be used as evidence that a person has committed a violent crime? Over and over again, in state courts across the country, prosecutors are trying to do just that. The question for courts, including in a recent case in Iowa, is whether this tactic risks convicting people not because of what they did or didn’t do, but because of how jurors react to their taste in music. But it’s not all musical genres that have the attention of prosecutors.
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Martha Davis |Michael Bobelian |Nancy Watzman |Erin Smith
In a new feature, State Court Report is previewing upcoming oral arguments in prominent or interesting state court cases. In April, state supreme courts in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Iowa, Utah, and Wisconsin are set to hear oral arguments on issues including restoration of voting rights following a felony conviction, whether a Catholic school should be approved as a public charter school, an abortion “heartbeat” bill, and power struggles between a governor and legislature. Minnesota Voters Alliance v.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Martha Davis |Michael Bobelian |Nancy Watzman |Jerry Dickinson
A town in Massachusetts has found an innovative way to avoid losing local policies to state preemption. Under preemption doctrine, when a state enacts a law, it can preclude a local government from enacting its own local regulation on the same issue. Very often, state preemption has frustrated liberally oriented communities in conservative states from adopting local ordinances that reflect more progressive values.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Nancy Watzman |Jerry Dickinson |Evan Zoldan |Douglas Keith
State supreme courts issue hundreds of decisions every year affecting voting rights, reproductive care, protections related to the criminal justice system, and other state constitutional rights. With so much at stake, accessing information about these proceedings — dockets, briefs, opinions — should be simple. But, often, it’s not so easy. Every state has its own system and practices for public access to case information.
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Dec 18, 2023 | 
statecourtreport.org | Anthony Sanders |Walter Olson |Nancy Watzman |Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot
State courts have the freedom to interpret their constitutions differently from the U.S. Constitution. A departure from the federal Constitution seems particularly called for when the text of a state constitution diverges significantly from its federal counterpart. Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court followed this call in Vlaming v. West Point School Board, announcing its state constitution’s unique religious liberties language should be interpreted differently than the federal First Amendment.
