Thread by @Taniel

There's a newly empowered progressive majority on the Washington Supreme Court. And it issued 2 sweeping decisions on youth sentences & war on drugs.

I wrote on how the rulings show off a blueprint of how state courts can do more to advance civil rights: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

Over the past 3 weeks, narrow majorities on the Washington Supreme Court pointed to the state constitution to:

1/ extend protections against life without parole, and
2/ strike down the state statute criminalizing drug possession, effectively legalizing it (for now?).

The first decision is a judicial milestone in extending the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence on life without parole beyond age 18.

The 2nd decision is especially striking in its willingness to rock the boat whatever the concerns it's impractical to address rights violations.

The 5 justices (out of 9) in the majority in both rulings are the 5 most recent to join the court. 2 of them joined just last year.

@mjs_DC beat me to publishing about these rulings on Monday, & he emphasized lessons for more appointments.

Read him too: slate.com/news-and-polit…

I was focusing on what advocates can glean on gains for progressives to strategize around state courts -- when federal courts have taken the Trumpian turn they have.

As one civil rights litigator simply told me: "there’s another potent tool that ought to at least be tried"

But there's really no overstating how much the decision on drug possession signaled a new era in WA State.

Some prosecutors & LE are saying it's too much to revisit it all. A public defender said:“Do we really think that workload should outweigh a constitutional protection?”