What is more, public pensions are often protected by a state's constitution, as in Illinois.Before the financial collapse most states were moving towards full funding.
The suits were consolidated and heard in Jefferson County circuit court, which claimed it had no authority to interfere with the method of deciding contested elections prescribed by the state constitution, an outcome that favored Beckham.
In July, Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan found that the GOP-pushed requirement creates a "substantial impairment of the right to vote," a right guaranteed by the state constitution.
Morrow was prohibited by the state constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, and the achievements of his administration were not significant enough to ensure the election of Charles I. Dawson, his would-be Republican successor in the gubernatorial election of 1923.
In his 182-page ruling, Justice Leland DeGrasse of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found that the state had utterly failed to ensure that New York City children received a "sound, basic education," as guaranteed by the state Constitution.
The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a similar law passed in 2013, saying that it imposed a voting qualification beyond what was required by the state constitution.
A better case study for municipalities looking to cut retirement benefits is the City of San Jose, where Judge Patricia Lucas recently ruled that modest retirement benefits are a contract with employees, and therefore protected by the state constitution.
No American woman would have a right to reproductive self-determination, unless guaranteed by her state constitution.
In Iowa, seven jurists were posed a question by people who had been denied basic fairness guaranteed by the state constitution.
