
Contents
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Do State Constitutions Reflect Idiosyncratic Anxieties or National Concerns? Do State Constitutions Reflect Idiosyncratic Anxieties or National Concerns?
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Are State Constitutions Products of Pluralistic Competition or Disinterested Judgment? Are State Constitutions Products of Pluralistic Competition or Disinterested Judgment?
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Are State Constitutions Trivial or Weighty? Are State Constitutions Trivial or Weighty?
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Limiting Government’s Discretion without Limiting Its Scope Limiting Government’s Discretion without Limiting Its Scope
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2 Of Ski Trails and State Constitutions: Silly Details or Serious Principles?
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Published:April 2013
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Abstract
This chapter examines why state constitutions have been so widely criticized and consistently excluded from descriptions of America's constitutional tradition. It seems that the people who wrote the state constitutions failed to grasp the purpose and the nature of constitutional law. Their recognizable features are surrounded, even engulfed, by hundreds of mundane administrative details. Indeed, many state constitutions contain provisions about policy choices as detailed as the construction of ski trails. In order to recognize the principled nature of state constitutionalism, the chapter analyzes the ubiquitous assumptions about “higher lawmaking” and states' idiosyncrasies that have animated its critics. It explores whether we should really revise our conception of American constitutional rights based solely on the state constitutions' (highly detailed) contents. It argues that the criticisms leveled against state constitutions are misplaced and demonstrates that they are actually constitutional.
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