Gender Equality Under State Constitutions
In this contributing post to the Brennan Center for Justice’s blog, two Center attorneys discuss the organization’s new resource that details the landscape of state constitutional standards for deciding sex discrimination claims. The new resource State Constitutions and Sex Discrimination, features an interactive state-by-state analysis of each state’s constitutional doctrine on sex discrimination and draws attention to how state courts can secure more robust reproductive autonomy rights for their residents.
“In cases challenging stereotypes about women and their place in society — from economic reliance on their husbands to gender-based parenting and unique public health care rules for pregnancy — many, though not all, state high courts have rejected those stereotypes as a legitimate basis for discriminatory policies,” say the co-authors Diana Kasdan, director of U.S. judicial strategy, and Alexander Wilson, staff attorney.
Reflecting on the elimination of the federal constitutional right to abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court one year ago, the co-authors add, “As more people turn to state courts to vindicate fundamental rights and block discriminatory state action, the Center for Reproductive Rights will continue tracking and analyzing those decisions — and looking to state courts to lead the way in building a modern gender equality jurisprudence.”
Read the blog post:
- “Gender Equality Under State Constitutions,” Brennan Center for Justice, 06.13.23
Explore the Center’s new map and resource:
