Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:35:28.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Arguing Gunwall

The Effect of the Criteria Test on Constitutional Rights Claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Richard S. Price
Richard S. Price*
Affiliation:
Weber State University
*
Contact the author at [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Exploring legal development requires more than simply examining the votes of judges because legal development embraces the actions of multiple actors. At a minimum, courts require lawyers to develop and present cases to them for adjudication. While courts need lawyers, lawyers need law; in other words, courts rely on lawyers to develop cases for their review, but the law provided by those courts shapes the actions of lawyers. This article examines the development of state constitutional law by exploring the interactions between lawyers and the Washington Supreme Court after the court required specific briefing practices for state constitutional arguments and the degree to which Washington lawyers responded. Utilizing legal briefs in Washington and some comparative data, I argue that the court was moderately successful at encouraging more thorough constitutional claims. This highlights the importance of considering how lawyers respond to court signals not only in the presence or absence of certain legal arguments but also in the content of those arguments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , Fall 2013 , pp. 331 - 361
Copyright
© 2013 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Tom Keck, Keith Bybee, David Klein, the anonymous reviewers, and participants at the 2011 APSA meeting for many helpful comments.

References

Andersen, Ellen Ann. 2005. Out of the Closets and Into the Courts: Legal Opportunity Structure and Gay Rights Litigation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Baird, Vanessa A. 2007. Answering the Call of the Court: How Justices and Litigants Set the Supreme Court Agenda. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Baird, Vanessa, and Jacobi, Tonja. 2009a. “How the Dissent Becomes the Majority: Using Federalism to Transform Coalitions in the U.S. Supreme Court.” Duke Law Journal 59 (2):183–238.Google Scholar
Baird, Vanessa, Jacobi, Tonja. 2009b. “Judicial Agenda Setting through Signaling and Strategic Litigant Responses.” Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 29:215–39.Google Scholar
Beavers, Staci L., and Emmert, Craig F. 2000. “Explaining State High-Courts’ Selective Use of State Constitutions.” Publius 30 (3): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beavers, Staci L., and Walz, Jeffrey S. 1998. “Modeling Judicial Federalism: Predictors of State Court Protections of Defendants’ Rights under State Constitutions, 1969–1989.” Publius 28 (2): 43–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdon, Robert I. 1994. “An Analytical Framework for Raising State Constitutional Claims in Connecticut.” Quinnipiac Law Review 14 (Summer): 191–215.Google Scholar
Bindas, Michael, Seth Cooper, DeWolf, David K. and Reitz, Michael J. 2011. “The Washington Supreme Court and the State Constitution: A 2010 Assessment.” Gonzaga Law Review 46:1–56.Google Scholar
Brace, Paul, Melinda Gann Hall, and Laura Langer. 1999. “Judicial Choice and the Politics of Abortion: Institutions, Context, and the Autonomy of Courts.” Albany Law Review 62:1265–1302.Google Scholar
Cauthen, James N. G. 2000. “Expanding Rights under State Constitutions: A Quantitative Appraisal.” Albany Law Review 63:1183–1202.Google Scholar
Collins, Ronald K. L., Galie, Peter J. and John Kincaid. 1986. “State High Courts, State Constitutions, and Individual Rights Litigation since 1980: A Judicial Survey.” Publius 16 (3): 141–61.Google Scholar
Corley, Pamela C. 2008. “The Supreme Court and Opinion Content: The Influence of Parties’ Briefs.” Political Research Quarterly 61 (3): 468–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmert, Craig F., and Carol Ann Traut. 1992. “State Supreme Courts, State Constitutions, and Judicial Policy-Making.” Justice System Journal 16 (1): 37–48.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 1998. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 2011. “The Support Structure as a Necessary Condition for Sustained Judicial Attention to Rights: A Response.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 406–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Jack Knight. 1998. The Choices Justices Make. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Kobylka, Joseph F. 1992. The Supreme Court and Legal Change: Abortion and the Death Penalty. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Esler, Michael. 1994. “State Supreme Court Commitment to State Law.” Judicature 78 (1): 25–32.Google Scholar
Farole, Donald J. 1998. Interest Groups and Judicial Federalism: Organizational Litigation in State Judiciaries Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Fino, Susan P. 1987a. “Judicial Federalism and Equality Guarantees in State Supreme Courts.” Publius 17 (1): 51–67.Google Scholar
Fino, Susan P. 1987b. The Role of State Supreme Courts in the New Judicial Federalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Gardner, James A. 1992. “The Failed Discourse of State Constitutionalism.” Michigan Law Review 90 (February): 761–837.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, James A. 2005. Interpreting State Constitutions: A Jurisprudence of Function in a Federal System. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, James A. 2011. “Why Federalism and Constitutional Positivism Don’t Mix.” In New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law, ed. J. A. Gardner and J. Rossi. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, James A., and Jim Rossi. 2011. “Dual Enforcement of Constitutional Norms.” In New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law, ed. J. A. Gardner and J. Rossi. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gillman, Howard. 2002. “How Political Parties Can Use the Courts to Advance Their Agendas: Federal Courts in the United States, 1875–1891.” American Political Science Review 96 (3): 511–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillman, Howard. 2006. “Party Politics and Constitutional Change: The Political Origins of Liberal Judicial Activism.” In The Supreme Court and American Political Development, ed. R. Kahn and K. I. Kersch. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Goluboff, Risa L. 2007. The Lost Promise of Civil Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hancock, Stephen F. 1993. “The State Constitution, a Criminal Lawyer’s First Line of Defense.” Albany Law Review 57: 271–88.Google Scholar
Keck, Thomas M. 2006. “From Bakke to Grutter: The Rise of Rights-Based Conservatism.” In The Supreme Court and American Political Development, ed. R. Kahn and K. I. Kersch. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Latzer, Barry. 1991. State Constitutions and Criminal Justice. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Susan E. 1990. The Poor in Court: The Legal Services Program and Supreme Court Decision Making. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth. 2007. The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer.” New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, Michael. 2010. Framing Equal Opportunity: Law and the Politics of School Finance Reform. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Richard S. 2012. “Lawyers Need Law: A Study of Constitutional Arguments Made to State Supreme Courts.” PhD diss., Syracuse University.Google Scholar
Schuman, David. 1988. “The Right to ‘Equal Privileges and Immunities’: A State’s Version of ‘Equal Protection.’” Vermont Law Review 13: 221–45.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J. 2002. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 1968. The Supreme Court and Administrative Agencies. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles H. 1988. A Century of Judging: A Political History of the Washington Supreme Court. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Hugh D. 1998. “Which Constitution? Eleven Years of Gunwall in Washington State.” Seattle University Law Review 21 (Spring): 1187–1215.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Hugh D. 2006. “New Life for the ‘Criteria Tests’ in State Constitutional Jurisprudence: ‘Gunwall Is Dead—Long Live Gunwall!’” Rutgers Law Journal 37 (Summer):1169–200.Google Scholar
Sutton, Jeffrey S. 2009. “Why Teach—and Why Study—State Constitutional Law.” Oklahoma City University Law Review 34 (Summer): 165–78.Google Scholar
Swenson, Karen. 2000. “School Finance Reform Litigation: Why Are Some State Supreme Courts Activists and Others Restrained?” Albany Law Review 63:1147–82.Google Scholar
Tarr, G. Alan. 1998a. “Review of Interest Groups and Judicial Federalism.” Publius 28 (4): 167–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarr, G. Alan. 1998b. Understanding State Constitutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarr, G. Alan, and Mary Cornelia Porter. 1988. State Supreme Courts in State and Nation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Teles, Steven M. 2008. The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urribarri, Raul A. Sanchez, Schorpp, Susanne, Randazzo, Kirk A. and Songer, Donald R. 2011a. “Explaining Changes to Rights Litigation: Testing a Multivariate Model in a Comparative Framework.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 391–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urribarri, Raul A. Sanchez, Schorpp, Susanne, Randazzo, Kirk A. and Songer, Donald R. 2011b. “The Support Structure and Sustained Attention to Rights: A Rejoinder.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 410–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Utter, Robert F. 1984. “Freedom and Diversity in a Federal System: Perspectives on State Constitutions and the Washington Declaration of Rights.” University of Puget Sound Law Review 7:491–525.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F. 1985. “Swimming in the Jaws of the Crocodile: State Court Comment on Federal Constitutional Issues When Disposing of Cases on State Constitutional Grounds.” Texas Law Review 63 (March/April): 1025–50.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F. 1988. “Ensuring Principled Development of State Constitutional Law: Responsibilities for Attorneys and Courts.” Emerging Issues in State Constitutional Law 1:217–27.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F. 1992. “The Practice of Principled Decision-Making in State Constitutionalism: Washington’s Experience.” Temple Law Review 65 (Winter): 1153–67.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F., and Larson, Edward J. 1988. “Church and State on the Frontier: The History of the Establishment Clauses in the Washington State Constitution.” Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 15 (Spring): 451–78.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F., and Pitler, Sanford F. 1987. “Presenting a State Constitutional Argument: Comment on Theory and Technique.” Indiana Law Review 20:635–77.Google Scholar
Utter, Robert F., and Spitzer, Hugh D. 2002. The Washington State Constitution: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Wedeking, Justin. 2010. “Supreme Court Litigants and Strategic Framing.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (3): 617–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wharton, Linda J. 2009. “Roe at Thirty-Six and Beyond: Enhancing Protection for Abortion Rights through State Constitutions.” William and Mary Journal of Women and Law 15 (Spring): 469–534.Google Scholar
Whittington, Keith E. 2005. “‘Interpose Your Friendly Hand’: Political Supports for the Exercise of Judicial Review by the United States Supreme Court.” American Political Science Review 99 (4):583–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, Keith E. 2007. Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, Charles K. 1986. “What You Should Know before Seeking Review in the Washington Supreme Court.” Washington State Bar News, January, 11–15.Google Scholar
Williams, Robert F. 1991. “State Constitutional Law: Teaching and Scholarship.” Journal of Legal Education 41 (June): 243–49.Google Scholar
Williams, Robert F. 1997. “In the Glare of the Supreme Court: Continuing Methodology and Legitimacy Problems in Independent State Constitutional Rights Adjudication.” Notre Dame Law Review 72 (May): 1015–64.Google Scholar
Williams, Robert F. 2009. The Law of American State Constitutions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar