Plenary 11: What about US? The Role of State Constitutional Rights Following Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

Session description: 

Recent SCOTUS decisions such as Dobbs v. Jackson and Grant’s Pass v. Johnson have shifted issues normally decided on a national level by application of the U.S. Constitution, toward state courts, in cases resting solely upon that state’s constitution. In addition, several state courts on their own have become more comfortable defining citizen rights in relation to state constitutional rights rather than federal constitutional rights. This session is designed to address the issues state appellate courts face when analyzing citizen rights under their own constitution. The panel will discuss the challenges practitioners face when framing the most persuasive legal argument relevant to the interpretation of a state constitution, and challenges faced by defendants in such cases (usually state or local public bodies) in responding to efforts to expand rights by invoking a state constitution. 

Learning Objectives:

• To identify and discuss concrete examples of settings in which state constitutions are a preferred source of fundamental rights over the U.S. Constitution.
• To better understand what kinds of legal authority shed light on whether a state constitution should be construed differently than the U.S. Constitution.
• To understand how state constitutions can take on heightened importance when a right under the U.S. Constitution is narrowed, or when efforts to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize a constitutional right do not succeed.

State constitutions are receiving increasing attention, because they may provide opportunities to parties seeking greater protections than the U.S. Constitution currently provides, and because the already provide more specific regulations of areas such as voting rights and education than the U.S. Constitution. Hear state and federal appellate judges, an experienced practitioner, and law professor specializing in this area discuss the direction of state constitutional law.

Hon.David Stras, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

David R. Stras is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where his service began on January 31, 2018.  Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, from July 1, 2020 until 2018. Before his judicial service, Judge Stras was on the University of Minnesota Law School faculty, writing and teaching in the areas of constitutional law, federal courts and jurisdiction, criminal law, and law and politics. He earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree  of business administration, and law degree from the University of Kansas. After law school he clerked for Judge Melvin Brunetti of the United States Cour of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Judge J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Following a year of private practice with Sidley Austin, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court.

Hon. Shannon Bacon, Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court

C. Shannon Bacon is a justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. She was appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court on January 25, 2019 after being recommended by a nonpartisan Judicial Nominating Commission. Prior to her appointment, Justice Bacon served as a district court judge on the Second Judicial District Court and as the Presiding Civil Judge. As a member of the Supreme Court, she was chosen as its chief justice in 2022, and served a two-year term in that position which ended in 2024. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a law degree at Creighton University. A New Mexico native, she returned to that state, where she clerked for Justice A. Joseph Alarid of the New Mexico Court of Appeals, and was a partner at two New Mexico law firms. 

Julie Murray, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU & Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School

Julie A. Murray is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School (where she co-teaches a seminar entitled “Litigating State Constitutional Rights”) and a Senior Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, where she co-launched the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative. The Initiative is dedicated to expanding the ACLU’s participation in state high courts and developing stronger state constitutional protections. She has worked as a public interest litigator for more than a decade. She is also active in the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers, where she serves on CAL’s Executive Board and as the State Chair for the District of Columbia.

Ms. Murray earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a law degree from Harvard Law School. She clerked for Judge Marsha Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before attending law school, she worked at the Urban Institute and Migration Policy Institute, where she focused on qualitative and quantitative social science research.

She has worked as a public interest litigator for more than a decade, including with Public Citizen Litigation Group. 

Prof. Miriam Seifter, Richard E. Johnson Bascom Professor of Law, Co-Director, State Democracy Research Initiative, & Rowe Faculty Fellow in Regulatory Law, University of Wisconsin Law School

Miriam Seifter is the Richard E. Johnson Bascom Professor of Law, Co-Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative, and Rowe Faculty Fellow in Regulatory Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The State Democracy Research Initiative seeks to advance research and dialogue on state-level democracy, government institutions, and public law, and to serve as a resource for academics, courts, policymakers, advocates, and the public. Her research addresses questions of state and federal public law, with a focus on challenges affecting democracy at the state level. She also teaches courses in Administrative Law, Property Law, and State and Local Government Law.

Professor Seifter received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, an master of science degree from Oxford University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. After law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to joining the UW Law faculty, she was a Visiting Researcher and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and worked in private practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.

Hon. David K. Thomson, Chief Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court (Moderator)

David K. Thomson is a justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court, serving as its Chief Justice since April 2024, where he will serve a two-year term.  He was appointed to the Court on February 4, 2019 after being recommended by a nonpartisan Judicial Nominating Commission.  Prior to his appointment, he served as a state trial judge. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law. A New Mexico native, he worked for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, and after a clerkship with Judge Bruce Black of the U.S. District of New Mexico, practiced in the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office as a litigation attorney, eventually serving as Deputy Attorney General.