use the helper function in laravel 5.1 instead:
return response()->json(['name' => 'Abigail', 'state' => 'CA']);
This will create an instance of \Illuminate\Routing\ResponseFactory. See the phpDocs for possible parameters below:
/**
* Return a new JSON response from the application.
*
* @param string|array $data
* @param int $status
* @param array $headers
* @param int $options
* @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
* @static
*/
public static function json($data = array(), $status = 200, $headers = array(), $options = 0){
return \Illuminate\Routing\ResponseFactory::json($data, $status, $headers, $options);
}