Opinion ID: 2040077
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Minnesota Constitution as Exclusive Basis of Decision

Text: The constitutional issues raised in this case focus on the Minnesota Constitution as the adequate and independent basis for decision, to the exclusion of the United States Constitution. A current exposition of this emerging constitutional practice by Minnesota lawyers Terrence Fleming and Jack Nordby in 7 Hamline L.Rev. 51 (1984), The Minnesota Bill of Rights: Wrapt in the Old Miasmal Mist, clarifies the power of state courts to interpret and apply their own constitutional Bill of Rights and the specific criteria that should govern the decision whether the state's Bill of Rights mandates departure from the minimum standards of the federal constitution. [41] Among several other law review commentaries, see also Pollock, State Constitutions as Separate Sources of Fundamental Rights, 35 Rutgers L.Rev. 707 (1983), and Linde, E. Pluribus, 18 Ga.L.Rev. 165 (1984). It is axiomatic that a state may interpret its state constitution to offer other and more  but not less  protection of individual rights than does the federal constitution. Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 81, 100 S.Ct. 2035, 2040, 64 L.Ed.2d 741 (1980); Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 719, 95 S.Ct. 1215, 1219, 43 L.Ed.2d 570 (1975). State courts are, and should be, the first line of defense for individual liberties within the federalist system. The Minnesota Bill of Rights, indeed, antedated the adoption of the fourteenth amendment, by which the federal Bill of Rights was in large measure made applicable to the states. The result is that the citizen has two sources for the protection of his or her civil liberties. This state should not abdicate its responsibility to effectuate both lines of constitutional defense. This does not mean, however, that the state should in all circumstances construe its own constitution more expansively than the federal constitution, particularly where their comparable provisions are textually identical, for the decisions of the United States Supreme Court inherently are of persuasive, although not dispositive, force. As Justice Hans Linde, in State v. Kennedy, 295 Or. 260, 666 P.2d 1316 (1983), urging that as a matter of judicial economy a state court should always consult dispositive state grounds for decision, without needless resort to federal grounds for decision, responded to a non sequitur contention that the United States Supreme Court's decisions under substantially identical texts not only deserve respect but presumptively fix its correct meaning also in state constitutions: The state finds some difficulty in explaining why this should be so. If state guarantees are presumptively bound to interpretation of the federal Bill of Rights merely because they are federal, the argument extends similar force to lower federal court decisions when the Supreme Court has not spoken. If the argument is only that the federal guarantees are older than the Oregon Constitution, the fact, of course, is that they were adopted in order to bind the federal government to guarantees already established in the existing states. Id. at 270, 666 P.2d at 1322. A strong basis for an independent interpretation, however, may be presented where invocation of the Minnesota Bill of Rights, as in this case, concerns conditions unique to this state. As Fleming and Nordby suggest: Innovative examination of this factor provides cogent arguments for engaging in independent interpretation as well as significant direction for decision-making. Several questions should be considered in examining this factor: whether Minnesota's history and traditions are relevant to the controversy; whether the controversy is local in nature; whether the resolution of the controversy rests primarily in a determination of localized facts; whether the Minnesota Supreme Court is in a better position than the federal courts to make the adjudication because of its superior knowledge of, experience with, and proximity to the controversy; whether the controversy warrants an individualized, experimental resolution of state-wide applicability or necessitates a broad, uniform resolution of nation-wide applicability; and whether there are other circumstances unique to Minnesota which mandate a decision contrary to the existing federal doctrine. [42] 7 Hamline L.Rev. at 76 (footnotes omitted). The basis for a different and more expansive interpretation is stronger yet where the provisions on the same subject are textually different. Unlike article 1, section 16, supra note 21, the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States more cryptically provides: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Fleming and Nordby aptly observe concerning this difference: [T]he state Bill of Rights expressly grants affirmative rights in the areas of free press, free speech and religious worship while the corresponding federal provision simply attempts to restrain governmental action. In effect, the language of the state constitution appears to afford Minnesota citizens greater protection than does the Federal Constitution. It also serves to lessen the force of United States Supreme Court decisions which only refer to the more limited protection afforded by the Federal Bill of Rights. 7 Hamline L.Rev. at 67-68 (footnotes omitted). Chief Justice Samuel J. Roberts of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, now retired, in a speech delivered a year ago before members of the Wyoming bar and representatives of the University of Wyoming College of Law (reprinted in 17 IJA Report of the Institute of Judicial Administration No. 2 (Winter 1985)) declared state court reliance on the adequate and independent state grounds for decision the most significant development in federal-state relations over the last decade; it reduces the burden of our federal court system, but even more importantly, lends  stability, integrity, and finality to state court decisions and thus makes for a better court system  a system governed, controlled, and supervised by state court adjudications, for state judges, practitioners, and litigants. (Emphasis in original.) Discussing several cases in which state courts had undertaken to rely exclusively on their own constitutions but which had been nonetheless reviewed by the United States Supreme Court, Justice Roberts points out that where a state court intends to rest a decision on state law, the state court in its opinion must clearly and specifically articulate that its decision is based exclusively on state law and must disclaim even the citation to analogous federal cases.  (Emphasis added.) For that reason, this dissenting opinion neither cites federal cases on freedom of speech and religion nor responds to those cited in the majority opinion.