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Freedom And Diversity In A Federal System: Perspectives On State Constitutions And The Washington Declaration Of Rights, Justice Robert F. Utter
Freedom And Diversity In A Federal System: Perspectives On State Constitutions And The Washington Declaration Of Rights, Justice Robert F. Utter
Seattle University Law Review
Increasingly, Washington courts are being asked to consider our Declaration as an independent and effective source of protection for individual rights, including some rights not recognized or protected by the United States Supreme Court, and to give our state constitution a truly independent interpretation. No matter how sympathetic they may be to such requests, lawyers and judges face at least three major problems in making a truly independent interpretation of a state constitutional provision. First, they must justify departing from precedents laid down by the United States Supreme Court, a step which makes many people understandably uncomfortable until the differing …