New Brennan Center website zooms in on state court cases
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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law recently launched State Court Report. The new nonpartisan news website gives deeper analysis of state constitutions and state court cases. It also features commentary and analysis by a wide range of experts, including academics, journalists and judges.
“The recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have really shined a light on how important state courts are,” said Douglas Keith, the senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program and a founding editor of State Court Report.
“These decisions coming out of the U.S. Supreme Court have limited or eliminated rights that people are used to existing in every state across the country and made state courts and their decisions center stage for protecting rights.”
Keith was a guest on Monday’s edition of “Closer Look,” where he further explained that the new online resource hub highlights state cases that address questions of law under the state’s constitutions.
The growing database currently includes at least 500 cases about several topics, including abortion, voting, environmental law, and more.
“Our goal here is to bring out information that the public may not already have, that may not have gotten the attention that it should have because it was about state law and not about the U.S. Constitution,” said Keith.