Building the Canon of Utah Constitutional Law: Lessons from the Utah Public Interest Standing Doctrine

In the current era of Utah constitutional case law, the legal community will have to be creative—and even deviceful—to piece together compelling briefs to argue cases under the Utah Constitution. In contrast to the early days of New Judicial Federalism where the court introduced new interpretations into the Utah constitutional dialogue from nothing more than a party’s citation to sister state law, sophisticated briefing is now necessary to succeed on a Utah Constitutional claim. Even where there is little case law or unfavorable prior precedents, practitioners may still find success by raising arguments grounded in the text of the Utah Constitution and supported by those sources the court has identified as useful for interpreting its text. The strongest textual arguments will be those supported by historical evidence of the intent of the 1895 Utah voters and drafters of the Utah Constitution, analysis of the constitutional traditions of sister states, and the history of the society that adopted the Utah Constitution

Print Rights with a Thousand Masks: Migrant Vulnerability, Resistance and Human Rights Law

PrintRights, a cooperative of undocumented asylum-seekers in Amsterdam, manufactured facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic; first distributing them to undocumented migrants residing in the city’s emergency shelter system and then selling them on-line to the wider public. By distributing facemasks with a message, PrintRights performatively inhabited the right to distribute printed works, legally resisting alienage law prohibitions on employment. Engaging the theory of Judith Butler, this article analyzes the relationship between PrintRights’ resistance, vulnerability and human rights discourse. Drawing on fieldwork conducted with PrintRights, this article shows the potential of human rights discourse to support undocumented migrant resistance.   PrintRights, une coopérative de demandeurs d’asile sans papiers à Amsterdam, a confectionné des masques pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, les distribuant d’abord aux migrants sans papiers résidant au sein du système d’hébergement d’urgence de la ville, puis les vendant ensuite à un public plus large. En distribuant des masques avec des messages, PrintRights a inscrit son action dans le cadre du droit humain à la liberté d'expression pour résister de manière légale aux interdictions d’emploi de la loi sur les étrangers. Mobilisant la théorie de Judith Butler, cet article analyse la relation entre la résistance, la vulnérabilité et l’engagement stratégique de PrintRights avec le droit relatif aux droits de la personne. S’appuyant sur un travail de terrain effectué auprès de PrintRights, j’explore la manière dont le discours de la vulnérabilité dans le droit relatif aux droits de la personne peut soutenir l’organisation des migrants sans papiers

Building the Canon of Utah Constitutional Law: Lessons from the Utah Public Interest Standing Doctrine

In the current era of Utah constitutional case law, the legal community will have to be creative—and even deviceful—to piece together compelling briefs to argue cases under the Utah Constitution. In contrast to the early days of New Judicial Federalism where the court introduced new interpretations into the Utah constitutional dialogue from nothing more than a party’s citation to sister state law, sophisticated briefing is now necessary to succeed on a Utah Constitutional claim. Even where there is little case law or unfavorable prior precedents, practitioners may still find success by raising arguments grounded in the text of the Utah Constitution and supported by those sources the court has identified as useful for interpreting its text. The strongest textual arguments will be those supported by historical evidence of the intent of the 1895 Utah voters and drafters of the Utah Constitution, analysis of the constitutional traditions of sister states, and the history of the society that adopted the Utah Constitution