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The "New Judicial Federalism" Before Its Time: A Comprehensive Review Of Economic Substantive Due Process Under State Constitutional Law Since 1940 And The Reasons For Its Recent Decline, Anthony B. Sanders

American University Law Review

The coming of the New Deal may have spelled the end of the Lochner era in the federal courts, but in the state courts Lochner's doctrine of economic substantive due process lives on. Since the New Deal, courts in almost every state have rebuffed the United States Supreme Court and have interpreted their own state constitutions' due process clauses to provide substantive protections to economic liberties. This Article presents a comprehensive survey of state court use of economic substantive due process since the New Deal. It includes an enumeration of every instance since 1940 of a state court of highest …