State and Local Government Law Commons^™

A New Federalist Approach To Reducing Gun Violence: Model State Policy For Medicaid-Funded, Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs, Racquel Bozzelli

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Progressive State Constitutionalism, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós

Buffalo Law Review

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, many state constitutions are truly modern documents that address important social, economic, and political issues from a progressive perspective. This is due to the combination of several key features, including: socially oriented historical circumstances; democratic creation processes; significant substantive content guided by ideas of social justice; and adequate judicial enforcement that takes into account these crucial normative elements. As a result, these progressive state constitutions can become powerful allies in the search for a transformative constitutionalism in the United States that facilitates the goals of social justice and collective prosperity.

The constitutional processes in California (1880), …

The Legislature At War: Bandits, Runaways And The Emergence Of A Virginia Doctrine Of Separation Of Powers, Matthew J. Steilen

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Anti-Sanctuary And Immigration Localism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Rick Su, Rose Cuison Villazor

Journal Articles

A new front in the war against sanctuary cities has emerged. Until recently, the fight against sanctuary cities has largely focused on the federal government's efforts to defund states like California and cities like Chicago and New York for resisting federal immigration enforcement. Thus far, localities have mainly prevailed against this federal anti-sanctuary campaign, relying on federalism protections afforded by the Tenth Amendment's anticommandeering and anticoercion doctrines. Recently, however, the battle lines have shifted with the proliferation of state-level laws that similarly seek to punish sanctuary cities. States across the country are directly mandating local participation, and courts thus far …

Indian Country Complexities And The Ambiguous State Of Marijuana Policy In The United States, Lauren Adornetto

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practice-Driven Changes To Constitutional Structures Of Governance, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Among the methods of informal constitutional change, perhaps the least studied or understood is change resulting from alterations in the way governance is practiced. Such changes, typically initiated by political actors in the executive and legislative branches, is probably the most common kind of constitutional change, and is almost certainly the most common source of informal change to structural provisions. In the United States, the best known instances of practice-driven changes to constitutional structure come from the federal level – the rise of a formal party system, for example, or the dramatic twentieth-century expansion of presidential power. Yet by far …

Autonomy And Isomorphism: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Structural Autonomy In American State Constitutions, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In the American system of federalism, states have almost complete freedom to adopt institutions and practices of internal self-governance that they find best-suited to the needs and preferences of their citizens. Nevertheless, states have not availed themselves of these opportunities: the structural provisions of state constitutions tend to converge strongly with one another and with the U.S. Constitution. This paper examines two important periods of such convergence: the period from 1776 through the first few decades of the nineteenth century, when states were inventing institutions of democratic governance and representation; and the period following the Supreme Court’s one person, one …

New York's Judicial Selection Process Is Fine – It's The Party System That Needs Fixing, James A. Gardner

Other Scholarship

New York's system of electing lower court judges has long been notorious for providing the appearance of democracy without any of the substance. Although the people are given an opportunity to vote for judges, the really meaningful choices about who will run, where, and whether judicial elections will even be contested have for years been made by party insiders. Last year, in a case soon to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second Circuit invalidated New York's method of electing judges on the ground that it violates the associational rights of party rank and file. In this brief …

Foreword: Representation Without Party: Lessons From State Constitutional Attempts To Control Gerrymandering, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Since the founding, all gerrymandering of election districts, at both the state and congressional levels, has been accomplished by state actors operating almost exclusively under state law. State constitutions have often served as a first line of defense against publicly disfavored practices, and the treatment of gerrymandering is no exception. The state constitutional record reveals a gradual introduction, diffusion, and evolution of a wide variety of provisions intended to control gerrymandering, including requirements of contiguity, compactness, respect for local political boundaries, and preservation of communities of interest, among others. Indeed, such provisions have been validated by the U.S. Supreme Court …

Foreword: The New Frontier Of State Constitutional Law, James A. Gardner, Jim Rossi

Journal Articles

In the past decade, a new frontier of constitutional discourse has begun to emerge, adding a fresh perspective to state constitutional law. Instead of treating states as jurisdictional islands in a sea under reign of the federal government, this new approach sees states as co-equals among themselves and between them and the federal government in a collective enterprise of democratic self-governance. This Symposium, organized around the theme of Dual Enforcement of Constitutional Norms, provides the occasion for leading scholars on state constitutional law to take a fresh look at their subject by adopting a vantage point outside of the individualized …

Structuring The Political Process Under American State Constitutions, James A. Gardner

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

State Constitutional Rights As Resistance To National Power: Toward A Functional Theory Of State Constitutions, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In the American legal order, constitutional rights are conventionally understood to apply to and restrain the level of government created by the constitution in which those rights appear. Thus, individual rights in a lower-order constitution are understood to apply solely to the lower level government and to have no relevance to the actions of any higher level of government. This article challenges the conventional understanding by arguing that individual rights appearing in state constitutions can in many circumstances play a meaningful role in restraining the exercise of national power. Specifically, the identification and enforcement of state constitutional rights can serve …

State Courts As Agents Of Federalism: Power And Interpretation In State Constitutional Law, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In the American constitutional tradition, federalism is commonly understood as a mechanism designed to institutionalize a kind of permanent struggle between state and national power. The same American constitutional tradition also holds that courts are basically passive institutions whose mission is to apply the law impartially while avoiding inherently political power struggles. These two commonplace understandings conflict on their face. The conflict may be dissolved for federal courts by conceiving their resistance to state authority as the impartial consequence of limitations on state power imposed by the U.S. Constitution. But this reconciliation is unavailable for state courts, which, by operation …

The Regulatory Role Of State Constitutional Structural Constraints In Presidential Elections, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Southern Character, Confederate Nationalism, And The Interpretation Of State Constitutions: A Case Study In Constitutional Argument, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The "States-As-Laboratories" Metaphor In State Constitutional Law, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The More Things Change…: Superficial State Constitutional Analysis At The New York Court Of Appeals, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

What Is A State Constitution?, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Failed Discourse Of State Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

State Constitutional Guarantees And Protection Of Defendants' Rights: The Case Of New York, 1960-1978, Peter J. Galie

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Topless Dancing And The Constitution: A New York Town's Experience, Andrew C. Spacone

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Local Law Setting Residence Requirements For Local Police Officers Invalid As Conflicting With Valid State Statute, David M. Brown

Buffalo Law Review

Hesselgrave v. King, 45 Misc. 2d 256, 256 N.Y.S.2d 753 (Sup. Ct. 1965).