State Case Database
Search State Court Report's database of significant state supreme court decisions and pending cases. Download decisions and briefs for cases that develop state constitutional law. This is a selected database and does not include every state supreme court case. See methodology and "How to Use the State Case Database" for more information.
This database is updated monthly, although individual cases may be updated more frequently. Last updated comprehensively with cases decided through March 2025.
Featured Cases
State of Washington v. Gator's Custom Guns
Washington Supreme Court reversed a lower court and upheld the state's ban on selling or manufacturing magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. The majority held that large-capacity magazines are “not” arms within the scope of the state or federal constitutional right to bear arms, and the ability to purchase them is not "necessary to the realization of the core right to possess a firearm in self-defense."
LeMieux v. Evers
The Wisconsin Supreme Court held, in a divided decision, that the governor did not exceed his partial veto authority under the state constitution when he altered digits, words, and punctuation in a budget bill to extend a school funding increase from 2 to 402 years.
Griffin v. State Board of Elections
A candidate for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who lost by over 700 votes, claims that the state board of elections followed an incorrect process for registering voters and seeks to invalidate more than 60,000 votes.
State v. Obrero
Ruled 1982 constitutional amendment did not repeal by implication statute requiring grand jury for felony prosecutions, thus prosecution based on complaint and probable cause hearing was unlawful
Promote The Vote 2022 v. Board of State Canvassers
Ruled ballot petition’s proposed amendments did not abrogate existing provisions to trigger constitutional requirement to republish those provisions
State v. Anderson
Ruled defendant’s de facto life sentence of 61 years without parole for juvenile offender crimes does not violate Washington Constitution’s prohibition against cruel punishment
Lord v. Salt Lake County Clerk
Rejected request for declaratory relief that school district property tax increase was subject to constitution’s voter referendum rights provision
Anderson v. Board of State Canvassers
Concurrence wrote that constitutional amendments proposed by initiative rather than by the legislature may be constitutionally limited to a single purpose
Reed v. State
Ruled defense counsel’s participation in unrecorded bench conferences outside of defendant’s presence did not violate defendant’s right to be present at critical stages of the criminal proceeding
Hendrix v. Jaeger
Ruled Secretary of State’s invalidation of all petition signatures on the basis of notary fraud imputed from inference of fraud in other petitions was a misapplication of the law
Rodriguez v. Massachusetts Parole Board
Ruled the right to a meaningful opportunity for parole applies to all juveniles sentenced to life without parole and affords judicial review of only one parole denial
McDonald v. Jacobsen
Ruled that a legislative referendum requiring that supreme court justices be elected by district, rather than statewide, violates the state constitution
Nath v. Texas Children's Hospital
Dissent would have granted petition for review to determine whether party had a fundamental constitutional right to a jury trial on the issue of an attorney-fee-shifting sanction
