Constitutional Law
Scope
Federal justiciability and individual rights plus Kansas Bill of Rights provisions that can supply independent state grounds.
Core rules
- Standing requires injury in fact, causation, and redressability; mootness, ripeness, and political question doctrines limit review.
- State action is required for Fourteenth Amendment and most constitutional claims; the First Amendment likewise requires government action.
- Equal protection: strict scrutiny for suspect classifications and fundamental rights; intermediate scrutiny for sex; rational basis for economic and social legislation.
- Procedural due process asks what process is due; substantive due process protects fundamental liberties. Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights section 1 has been construed to protect natural rights, including reproductive autonomy in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt (2019).
- First Amendment: content-based regulation gets strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, and manner rules need intermediate scrutiny, narrow tailoring, and alternative channels.
Worked example
A city bans all signs within 100 feet of a polling place but exempts official campaign signs. Because the exemption turns on the sign's message, the rule is content-based. The city must show a compelling interest and narrow tailoring; a safety rationale alone will not save the message preference.
Traps
Treating federal and Kansas constitutional claims as identical; forgetting state action; invoking overbreadth outside the First Amendment; and assuming a neutral law is immune from challenge because it applies generally.