Interpreting state constitutions
Subtitle: a jurisprudence of function in a federal system
By: James A. Gardner.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 311
Subjects: Constitutional law -- United States -- States.
Description: "Interpreting State Constitutions examines and proposes a solution to a problem central to contemporary debates over the enforcement of civil liberties: how courts, government officials, and lawyers should go about interpreting the constitutions of states." "With the Supreme Court's retreat from the aggressive protection of individual rights, state courts have begun to interpret state constitutions to provide broader protection of liberties. This development has reversed the polarity of constitutional politics, as liberals advocate unimpeded state power while conservatives lobby for state subordination to a constitutional law controlled centrally by the Supreme Court."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-300) and index.
Table of contents: title: The emergence of the modern debate; title: The dead end of romantic subnationalism; title: The mechanics of federalism; title: State constitutions in the federal scheme; title: Patterns of distrust; title: A functional account of state judicial power; title: An approach to state constitutional interpretation.