Editor's foreword.

• Author: Bonventre, Vincent Martin

Stanley G. Feldman has been with State Constitutional Commentary since its inception. As Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court at the time, Feldman graced our inaugural masthead with his distinguished name and reputation as one of the nation's preeminent state jurists. More than that, he encouraged our fledging journal with his commitment to state constitutional adjudication and state court independence, both as a judge and a scholar. This year's issue of State Constitutional Commentary is dedicated to Justice Feldman upon his retirement from Arizona's high court.

We are proud to present tributes by current Arizona Chief Justice Charles Jones, Deans Charles Ares, Paul Bender, and Toni Massaro, and Professor James Todd. Common themes in these essays are Justice Feldman's brilliance, energy, independence, influence and leadership in improving the law of his state and in elevating the stature of its supreme court. While his mandatory age retirement from the bench is a great loss for Arizona and its high tribunal, fortunate]y for us at State Constitutional Commentary, we have no such limited tenure on our professional board. Indeed, not only will Justice Feldman continue with us, he has agreed to serve as our Chair.

In that capacity, he succeeds the late Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke of New York. Like his predecessor, Justice Feldman honors us with his support and enthusiasm. We deem it a tribute to this journal that Feldman, like Cooke before him, is so willing and pleased to be affiliated with us. In turn, we are privileged by that affiliation and extremely pleased to dedicate this issue to him in commemoration of his judicial career and to wish him the very best in his new endeavors.

Following the dedication to Justice Feldman are a selection of articles, perspective essays, high court studies and a student note that collectively constitute an issue which, like those in previous years, explores a broad swath of state court decision making, fundamental law, and state-federal relations. The articles section opens with a look at state-based equal protection. Stanley Friedelbaum, our senior consulting editor and annual contributor, finds that state courts have largely been disinclined to venture beyond federal case law. The exceptions have been sporadic experiences in a few states. In the second article, Christine Goodman of Pepperdine examines a slice of equal protection law in California. She concludes that statistical evidence is...