Lockstepping State Constitutional Rights with Federal Constitutional Law

Abstract This chapter explores state court adoption of federal constitutional doctrine and the forms of lockstepping state and federal constitutional analyses. It addresses judicial approaches to the adoption of federal constitutional doctrine as a matter of state constitutional law, including examination of the phenomena of unreflective adoptionism; reflective, case-by-case adoptionism; and varieties of prospective lockstepping. The chapter looks specifically at efforts to lockstep equality doctrine by focusing on state constitutional equality provisions and the interpretation of these provisions by state courts. The chapter critiques the practice of prospective lockstepping and concludes by asking whether the practice reflects a considered judicial strategy.