New Yorker Article Features McLane's Efforts to Expand Rights for Young Adults

The article by Eyal Press opens, "In November, 2020, Lauren McLane, a professor at the University of Wyoming College of Law, was forwarded a letter from Christopher Hicks, an incarcerated man who’d been sentenced to life without parole for his role in a murder." (Image: The New Yorker magazine)

The New Yorker Covers State Law Research Initiative & The Movement To Expand Rights Through State Constitutions

In this week’s New Yorker, staff writer Eyal Press details the growing legal movement to expand rights through state constitutions while bypassing the reactionary and increasingly corrupt Supreme Court. State courts cannot weaken federal rights, but they can use state constitutions to amplify them, an idea that Justice William Brennan promoted when, in the 1970s, four Nixon appointees turned the Supreme Court into the staunchly rightwing institution it remains today. 

Importantly, the piece covers the cross-ideological appeal of modern state constitutionalism—involving, as it does, asserting independence from federal rulings—and the role that state courts play as innovative leaders and catalysts for change, building consensus that ultimately shapes federal constitutional law. These possibilities extend across myriad issues, Press explains, including voting rights, environmental protections, abortion, and due process in criminal prosecutions. It’s also true of rights against excessive criminal punishments, and the piece highlights the State Law Research Initiative’s advocacy along with a new Wyoming state challenge to death-in-prison sentences for emerging adults.

[Read The Full Article | Listen to Eyal Press on WNYC]