| West Codenotes West Codenotes (wcn) provide a way to find
modern cases (older cases won't contain this enhancement)
that have held statutes unconstitutional. West Codenotes
appear between the West Headnotes and the text of an
opinion in cases that "impact the constitutionality
or validity of a statute." This field is a
searchable field on Westlaw, but it is not listed with
the other searchable fields.
You can find examples of cases in
which courts have found statues to be void for vagueness.
Select the database ALLCASES and type wcn(unconst!)
& sy,di(vague).
You can also search for cases in
which courts have found state laws to be preempted by
ERISA. Select the database ALLCASES and type wcn(preempt!)
& sy,di(e.r.i.s.a. "employee retirement income
security act").
Note: Using sy,di
in your search statement restricts the search to the
synopsis and digest fields that contain editorial
summaries of the issues in a case. This way you avoid
retrieving cases containing "irrelevant occurrences"
of your search terms.
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