State courts collectively deliver more equal justice than the U.S. Supreme Court does

Evidence

Indeed, according to Justice William Brennan, who served on both the U.S. Supreme Court and the New Jersey Supreme Court, “The composite work of the courts in the fifty states probably has greater significance [than that of the U.S. Supreme Court] in measuring how well America attains the ideal of equal justice for all.” … In addition to its intrinsic importance, state court policymaking in these fields reveals how state courts participate in governing and the influence on state judicial policymaking of state courts’ relationships with federal courts, with courts in other states, and with the state legislature and other institutions of state government. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3267

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames state courts as co-equal governing institutions, not merely subordinate interpreters of federal law.
• XREF: Connects to the course’s theme that competing understandings of justice, equality, and fairness are worked out institutionally, here at the state rather than federal level.