The Double-Edged Sword of State Constitutional Law
Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton on the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Cir-cuit is perhaps this nation’s most sophisticated expositor and articulate champion of state constitutional law. On multiple occasions he has taken the position that lawyers should be well aware that, on economic liberties like any other issue, they have two shots at striking down an unwelcome state law on constitutional grounds, one federal and one state. The conventional wisdom, he observes, often over-looks this double-barreled possibility by taking the view that the federal constitution is, pick your metaphor, the only game in town or the fount of all wisdom. As such its allure is so powerful that lawyers of all political stripes move heaven and earth to get into federal courts in order to present their case.
