Public Law in the States 2025

In May 2025, the State Democracy Research Initiative hosted its fifth annual Public Law in the States conference, convening legal scholars and state supreme court justices to discuss a range of state-level issues at the intersection of law and democracy. This annual event seeks to foster dialogue and community around state-level public law, which often receives less attention than its federal counterpart.

The conference’s keynote panel, The Work of State Supreme Courts, highlighted the perspectives of five state supreme court justices from across the country. The justices discussed distinctive features of their respective state courts, including decision-making practices and judicial selection methods. Academic panels explored topics relating to state public law and democracy, state constitutions, state institutions, and state courts. Essays from conference participants are published in a special issue of the Wisconsin Law Review.

SDRI faculty co-director Robert Yablon (University of Wisconsin Law School) moderated a panel of five supreme court justices: Justice C. Shannon Bacon (New Mexico Supreme Court), Justice Peter Killough (Maryland Supreme Court), Justice Bill Mims (Virginia Supreme Court), Justice Paige Petersen (Utah Supreme Court), and Chief Justice Loretta Rush (Indiana Supreme Court).

Each justice discussed distinctive or notable features of their court and its work, and they explained the judicial selection process in each of their states. The justices also remarked on institutional challenges that state courts are facing, including an uptick in threats to the security of state judges.

Public Law in the States: Academic Panels

Panel 1: State Public Law and Democracy

• Problems of Compliance in Election Law by Lisa Marshall Manheim (University of Washington School of Law); introduced by Rob Yablon (University of Wisconsin Law School).
• Disenfranchisement Creep by Bryna Godar (State Democracy Research Initiative); introduced by Kerrel Murray (Columbia Law School).
• State Constitutions and Democratic Transition by Joy Milligan & Bertrall Ross (UC Berkeley Law); introduced by Miriam Seifter (University of Wisconsin Law School).

Panel 2: State Constitutions

• Are the Adjuncts Alright? by Franciska Coleman (University of Wisconsin Law School); introduced by Anuj Desai (University of Wisconsin Law School).
• State Constitutions and the Right to Gender Autonomy by Katie Eyer (Rutgers Law School); introduced by Liz Sepper (University of Texas School of Law).
• Federal Capital City State Constitutionalism by Nathan Fleming (Wake Forest School of Law); introduced by Franciska Coleman (University of Wisconsin Law School).

Panel 3: State Institutions

• Are City Council Speakers a Solution to City Council Fragmentation? by Rick Hills (New York University School of Law); introduced by Dan Rodriguez (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law).
• Romancing Centralization: A New Geography of Local Powerlessness by Michelle Wilde Anderson (Stanford Law School); introduced by Sarah Swan (Rutgers Law School).
• The Original Meaning of “Full and Equal Enjoyment” of Public Accommodations by Liz Sepper (University of Texas School of Law); introduced by Serena Mayeri (Penn Carey Law School).

Panel 4: State Courts

• Tort Logics for State Constitutional Injuries by Sarah Swan (Rutgers Law School); introduced by Cecelia Klingele (University of Wisconsin Law School).
• History and Tradition in Constitutional Interpretation: Resistance in the States by Serena Mayeri (Penn Carey Law School); introduced by Chad Oldfather (Marquette University Law School).
• Lockstepping Structure by Darrell Miller (University of Chicago Law School); introduced by Rick Hills (New York University School of Law).