Legislative Responses to Unconstitutionality: A View from the States

Abstract This article contributes to literature on legislative-court relations by incorporating the states. Pickerill (2004) examined congressional responses to court rulings declaring statutes unconstitutional, classifying responses into three categories—amending, repealing, or doing nothing. I assembled a list of all Minnesota, Michigan, and Wyoming statutes declared unconstitutional from 1940 to 2008 by state or federal courts. I then determined the legislature’s response. I find unexpected differences in state responsiveness, and between the states and Congress. Also, state legislatures are more likely to respond to a ruling of unconstitutionality from their own courts than from the federal courts.