Today Slate and the Brennan Center’s State Court Report began a partnership, with Slate publishing legal analyses that first appeared on State Court Report.
The first State Court Report piece to appear on Slate is “Pennsylvania Faces a Moment of Truth for Life Without Parole,” by Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot and Anna Benham. State Court Report publishes 15–25 articles per month about state constitutions and state supreme courts. Launched in September 2023, the website features commentary by legal experts and practitioners.
“Slate is a go-to source for top-notch legal reporting and analysis. We’re honored to contribute,” said Alicia Bannon, editor in chief of State Court Report and director of the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program. “More and more Americans are turning to their state constitutions to protect their rights, and this partnership will help deepen the public’s understanding of state constitutions and their potential.”
State Court Report tracks cases and emerging trends in state constitutional law. It provides analysis on such issues as reproductive rights, the environment, originalism, elections, torts and liability, civil due process, criminal law, judicial selection, economic liberty, and civil rights. Contributors include Justice Melissa Hart of the Colorado Supreme Court, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, retired Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court, the director of the Center for Judicial Engagement at the Institute for Justice Anthony Sanders, and UC Davis Law Professor Mary Ziegler. The site also offers a database of decisions and briefs from hundreds of significant state supreme court cases since 2021 across the fifty states, as well as materials from major pending cases.
“Legal coverage has an unfortunate tendency to focus on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary almost to the exclusion of state courts,” said Jeremy Stahl, Slate’s jurisprudence editor. “Having State Court Report as a partner allows us to highlight for our readers an under-appreciated but critical aspect of the law.”
State Court Report has an advisory board with Dahlia Lithwick, Slate’s legal correspondent and host of the Amicus podcast, among the members.
State Court Report publishes a bi-weekly newsletter about the latest developments in state constitutions and courts. To subscribe, click here.
About Slate
Slate is a daily online magazine and podcast network that helped invent the voice of the web. Slate is the preeminent site for authoritative and provocative debate, publishing reporting and analysis that cuts through the noise and recalibrates our audience’s understanding of news and current events. Whether in podcasting or text, Slate delivers the sharpest insights—on politics, jurisprudence, culture, technology, and more—with unusual verve and imagination, that helps readers and listeners navigate a complex news environment. Its award-winning jurisprudence team led by legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick, senior legal writer Mark Joseph Stern and editor Jeremy Stahl is constantly working to change the way the media covers the Supreme Court through its reporting and analysis.
About the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law
The Brennan Center for Justice is an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and when necessary, defend our country’s systems of democracy and justice.
