Thread by @OrinKerr

Notable: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court adopts new test for establishing a racially discriminatory traffic stop under its state constitution to make it less difficult to establish such a claim, overturning 2008 decision. mass.gov/files/document… #N

As I read this, the prior decision, Lora, effectively required data on that officer's prior stops showing that the officer was disproportionately stopping people by race. But that data has been hard to get, so the burden is too hard to satisfy.

The new case adopts an easier-to-prove standard specifically tailored to traffic stops. From the opinion:

This all sounds legislative from a modern federal court lens, but then it's not a federal court: This is the Massachusetts high court interpreting the state equal protection clause in the Mass Declaration of Rights, so it doesn't need to echo federal court rulings. /end

(h/t @JohnWesleyHall at FourthAmendment.com)