Expanded Rights through State Law: The United States Supreme Court Shows State Courts the Way

Three important cases decided during 2002 show the Arkansas Supreme Court embracing the new judicial federalism with a commitment and panache not previously seen in Arkansas jurisprudence.In one four-month stretch, the court used the search-and-seizure provision of the Arkansas constitution as the basis for affirming the suppression of items seized during an illegal night-time search,' affirmed the constitutional invalidity of a pretextual arrest and the * Associate Justice, Arkansas Supreme Court.I am indebted to my law clerk for the 2001-2002 term, Erin Vinett, who not only did extensive research and analysis for this article but also worked closely with me on the seminal cases that gave rise to it.Additional research, which proved invaluable, was done by one of my 2002-2003 law clerks, Christian Harris, while a second 2002-2003 law clerk, Michael Mosley, offered constructive comments.