Syracuse Law Review is pleased to announce our 2024-2025 symposium on state constitutional law, rights, and protections.
Too much focus has been levied at the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent proclivity in reversing decades-long precedent that had broadened the scope of federal constitutional protections for such areas as reproductive rights. Scholars, practitioners, and citizens are rightfully concerned about the Court’s suggestions that it is willing to take aim at other such protections, such as Clarence Thomas signaling out contraception in his Dobbs Concurrence. This concern is more pronounced in light of the Court’s overruling of Chevron, as well as its expansion of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution.
Rather than join the panic, we see this as an opportunity to highlight: First, that federal constitutional rights are a floor, not a ceiling; and second, the potential that state constitutions and legislatures can play in broadening the scope of their protections for individual rights and privileges. Since state law has a wider reach than federal law, we can cover areas such as voting rights, access and efficiency of education, administrative competence, environmental protections, and of course criminal justice, reproductive rights, speech, religious freedoms, and more.
Through this symposium, we wish to highlight this potential to scholars, practitioners, and any and all policymakers who can and are willing to use the vehicle of their state’s lawmaking authority to broaden rights that the federal judiciary is bent on retracting. Authors exploring these issues can submit a paper proposal along with their CV to slrsubmissions@syr.edu. We welcome proposals ranging from one page to a full draft. Selected proposals will be extended to articles of about 7,000 words, with full manuscripts due in January 2025 for publication in Volume 75. Proposals will be accepted through September 15, 2024. We strongly encourage early submission.
Our Symposium event is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 5th, 2024, at Syracuse University College of Law. For those authors who cannot travel to Syracuse, you may participate in a hybrid-format via Zoom. Please indicate your availability to attend in your submission email.
Please direct any questions or submissions to our Lead Articles Editor, Noah Centore, at nhcentor@syr.edu.
Thank you.