State constitution
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 83 U.S. 667 - Railroad Company v. County of Otoe · 1872Most cited · 60 citing opinions
rule of construction
In construing the Federal Constitution, Congress must be held to have only those powers which are granted expressly or by necessary implication, but the opposite rule is the one to be applied to the construction of a State constitution. The legislature of a State may exercise all powers which are properly legislative, unless they are forbidden by the State or National Constitution.
How often courts cite the case defining “State constitution”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “State constitution” — 59 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.