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State legislatures regularly propose and enact laws that seek to shape the substantive outcomes of state courts. These measures, including court-packing efforts, jurisdiction-stripping laws, and more creative maneuvers to change judicial selection or authority, would amount to legal earthquakes at the federal level. At the state level, these efforts often receive virtually no attention. This Essay brings the potent category of outcome-shaping court reform measures into focus and evaluates it as a question of state constitutional law.

Amid federal upheaval, myriad important legal and policy developments continue to unfold at the state level. The Essays in this Special Issue were presented at, or grew out of, the fifth annual Public Law in the States Conference hosted by the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School in May 2025.

On September 18th, SDRI co-faculty directors Miriam Seifter and Rob Yablon participated in a panel discussing key laws governing federal vs. state powers, the changing scope of executive powers, and best practices for reporting on political issues like these at the state and local levels.

Developed by two of the subject’s leading experts, the First Edition of State Constitutional Law: Cases and Principles provides a contemporary, authoritative treatment of the field, complete with majority approaches and alternatives across the country. The book provides detailed treatments of the wide range of state constitutional issues—not only rights, but also government structure, democracy, fiscal provisions, and intrastate relations.

Following the 2024 election, we updated our survey of election-related lawsuits to help understand the role of litigation in our elections. This update underscores key themes from our survey of litigation from 2018 to 2022: litigants continue to file election suits at high rates, primarily in state courts, and most often presenting claims related to election administration and the mechanics of voting.

A roundup of state public law scholarship published in the fall of 2024.

Recent scholarship persuasively argues that state constitutional law should be grounded in state-centered reasoning, not federal imitation. That approach, compelling at the 10,000-foot level, also requires development through examples closer to the ground. This symposium Article uses legislative vetoes—arrangements in which legislators can override executive action without passing new laws—to explore the practice and adjudication of state structural constitutionalism.

There has been growing public interest in the potential of state courts and constitutions to provide greater protections to people within their borders than what’s offered under the federal Constitution. In 2024, multiple high-profile cases wound through state judiciaries, addressing reproductive rights, democracy, criminal justice, and much more.

National-level developments in law and government typically grab the biggest headlines and drive discourse in the legal academy. With a high-stakes presidential election, major U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and more, 2024 has been no exception. But many consequential legal developments have unfolded at the state level as well. The Essays in this Special Issue explore questions pertaining to state public law, including examining distinctive features of state governance and the relationship between states and the federal government.

"Some prominent judges -- including the late U.S. Supreme court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. -- and law professors have tried for decades to draw attention to the issue. The message may finally be getting through."