Students must enroll in LAW 3181 in order to enroll in this course.
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of state constitutional law as a distinct and dynamic field of constitutional analysis. Although federal constitutional law often dominates legal education and public discourse, state constitutions are independent sources of legal rights, governmental structure, and limitations on public power. The course will examine the historical development, structure, interpretation, and contemporary significance of state constitutions, with particular attention to the relationship between state constitutional provisions and the U.S. Constitution. Students will explore the ways in which state courts interpret their own constitutions, including circumstances in which state constitutional provisions provide greater protections than their federal counterparts. The course will also consider the institutional roles of state courts, legislatures, executive officials, and the people themselves in shaping state constitutional meaning.
The course will emphasize both the practical and theoretical dimensions of state constitutionalism. Through discussion, written analysis, independent research, and an experiential simulation of a constitutional convention, students will consider how constitutional provisions are drafted, interpreted, contested, and changed. Particular attention will be given to methodological questions—including textualism, history and tradition, structural analysis, precedent, popular sovereignty, and comparative state constitutional reasoning—as well as to recurring issues such as individual rights, separation of powers, education, taxation and fiscal policy, criminal procedure, privacy, and democratic governance. By the conclusion of the course, students should be able not only to identify and analyze significant state constitutional doctrines, but also to evaluate competing approaches to constitutional interpretation and articulate well-supported arguments about the meaning and future development of state
constitutional law.