The Emerging Agenda in State Constitutional Rights Law

Abstract

Since the late 1960s, more and more state high courts have placed greater reliance on their own state constitutions in extending rights protections to individuals. Because many state bills of rights are more expansive than the federal Bill of Rights, state courts have often extended rights protections beyond those granted by the U.S. Supreme Court under its interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. As a result, one can speak of an emerging agenda of rights protection in state constitutional law. Among the important items on this agenda are privacy rights, education as a fundamental right, aid to religious schools, Miranda warnings, searches and seizures, self-incrimination, discriminatory peremptory challenges, obscenity, and freedom of speech, including free speech in shopping centers. Such state court activity suggests a revitalization of federalism, at least within the judicial sphere.