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Our Work

The State Democracy Research Initiative works to produce high-quality research and share its findings and insights with the public, press, advocates, scholars, and judges. This work takes a variety of forms, from timely commentary to comprehensive overviews of all 50 states to forward-looking legal analysis.

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Reports

State Constitutional Standards for Adjudicating Challenges to Restrictive Voting Laws

Emily Lau 10.03.23 Last Updated 02.18.26

This Report surveys and classifies the standards that state courts around the country use to adjudicate state constitutional challenges to restrictive voting laws. This survey found that a majority of states apply a standard more rigorous than federal Anderson-Burdick review.

Websites

Democracy Principle

State constitutions reflect a powerful commitment to democracy. This website highlights state constitutional provisions across the nation that contribute to the democracy principle.

Websites

50 Constitutions

Explore the full, up-to-date text of each of the 50 state constitutions. Search within and across states, and use the “Tracking Constitutional Change” feature to see how each state’s constitution has evolved over time.

Reports

Judicial Recusal in Wisconsin and Beyond

This Explainer offers legal and practical context to the calls for Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself from hearing two lawsuits challenging the state's legislative maps. It begins by describing the relevant federal and Wisconsin-specific legal standards for recusal. It then gives examples from Wisconsin and around the country of other instances in which recusal has—and has not—been required. The purpose of this explainer is to describe existing recusal rules, precedents, and practices, not to endorse or criticize them or to express a view on what the law of recusal should be.

Multi-State State Courts
Reports

Election-Litigation Data: 2018, 2020, 2022 State and Federal Court Filings

In recent years, litigation has routinely accompanied elections. To better understand developments in election litigation, we recently completed a survey of election-related lawsuits filed in state and federal courts in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

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